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[      DEO  8    1950 


Division         ^C^d- 
Section  3^  7o 


THE    LIFE 

OF 

MARY   BAKER   EDDY 


A. 


MARY    I}AK?:R  eddy 


THE   LIFE 


OF 


0  8    1920 


MARY   BAKER   EDDY 


BY 

sibyl'^ilbur 


CONCORD  PUBLISHING   COMPANY 

New  York:   312  Fourth  Ave. 
London:  22  Bedford  St.,  Stbajjd 


Copyright,  1907,  1908 
By  Sibyl  Wilbur  O'Briek 

Copyright,  1907 
By  Human  Life  Publishing  Co. 

Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall,  London 
All  rights  reserved 


THE   university    PRESS,    CAMBRIDGE,    U.S.A. 


/T  is  commonly  said  that,  if  he  would  be  heard, 
none  should  write  in  advance  of  his  times.  That 
I  do  not  believe.  Ordy,  it  does  not  matter  how 
few  listen.  I  believe  that  we  are  close  upon  a  great 
and  deep  spiritual  change.  I  believe  a  new  redemp- 
tion is  even  now  conceived  of  the  Divine  Spiiit  in 
the  human  heart,  that  is  itself  as  a  woman,  broken 
in  dreams  and  yet  sustained  in  faith,  patient,  long- 
suffering,  looking  towards  home.  I  believe  that 
though  the  Reign  of  Peace  may  be  yet  a  long  way 
off,  it  is  di^awing  near :  and  that  Who  shall  save  us 
anew  shall  come  divinely  as  a  Woman,  to  save  as 
Christ  saved,  but  not  as  He  did,  to  bring  with  Her 
a  sword. 

William  Sharp  (Fiona  MacLeod) 
in  The  Isle  of  Dreams 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introduction xi 

CHAPTER 

I   Ancestry  and  Genealogy 1 

II   Childhood  Days 9 

III  Education  and  Development 21 

IV  Change  and  Bereavement 38 

V   Formative  Processes 49 

VI    Illumination  and  Backward  Turning  ....  67 

VII    The  Apotheosis  of  a  Hypnotist 82 

VIII    The  Mystery  of  the  Quimby  Manuscripts   .     .  97 

IX    Mesmerism  Dominant 106 

X    The  Discovery  of  the  Principle  of  Christian 

Science 117 

XI   The  Test  of  Experience 143 

XII    Germination  and  Unfoldment 166 

XIII  Mesmerism  Dethroned 193 

XIV  The  First  Edition  of  Science  and  Health      .  208 
XV    A  Conflict  of  Personalities 220 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVI  A  Strange  Conspiracy 247 

XVII  Organization  of  Church  and  College  .     .     .  259 

XVIII  Foundation  Work  in  Boston 282 

XIX  The  Wide  Horizon 298 

XX  Withdrawal  from  the  World 323 

XXI  The  Leader  in  Retirement 344 

Index 371 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Mary  Baker  Eddy Frontispiece 

From  a  photograph. 

FACING  PAGE 

Mrs.  Eddy's  Birthplace  in  Bow,  New  Hampshire    ...        10 

As  it  looked  when  she  was  a  child.     From  a  chalk  drawing  by 
Rufus  Baker,  steel  engraved. 

Engraving  copyrighted  by  Rufus  Baker 

The  Congregational  Church  at  Tilton,  New  Hampshire  .       32 

Mrs.  Eddy  was  a  member  of  this  church  for  many  years  and 
taught  a  class  in  the  Sunday-school. 

Home  of  Mark  Baker  in  Tilton,  New  Hampshire  ...       44 

Where  Mrs.  Eddy  lived  as  a  young  widow  with  her  father  after 
her  mother's  death.  Erected  in  1848,  it  has  been  removed 
from  its  original  environment. 

Home  of  Abigail  Tilton,  Tilton,  New  Hampshire  ...       5Q 

Where  Mrs.  Eddy  lived  with  her  sister  before  her  second  mar- 
riage.    Removed  from  its  original  environment. 

Cottage  at  North  Groton,  New  Hampshire 60 

The  home  in  the  White  Mountains  to  which  Dr.  Patterson  took 
Mrs.  Eddy  in  1856. 

The  Squire  Bagley  Homestead,  Amesbury,  Massachusetts     170 
Where  Mrs.  Eddy  met  John  Greenleaf  Whittier  in  1870. 

The  "Little  House  in  Broad  Street,"  Lynn,  Massachusetts     212 

Where  Mrs.  Eddy  completed  the  text  of  the  First  Edition  of 
Science  and  Health. 

The  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College 288 

One  of  a  series  of  gray  stone  residences  in  Columbus  Avenue, 
Boston,  occupied  by  Mrs.  Eddy  in  1882. 


X  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING   PAGK 

Pleasant  View,  Concord,  New  Hampshire 338 

Where  Mrs.  Eddy  resided  from  1892  until  1908,  and  where,  from 
its  rear  balcony,  she  addressed  a  concourse  of  Christian 
Scientists  in  1901. 

The  Mother  Church  in  Boston 354 

With  the  Temple  Extension. 

Mrs.   Eddy's  present    home,   Chestnut    Hill,   Brookline, 

Massachusetts 368 


INTRODUCTION 

NO  mystery  to-day  surrounds  the  life  story  of 
Mary  Baker  Eddy.  Her  birth,  her  ancestry 
for  two  hundred  years,  her  education,  her  social 
development,  and  her  individual  service  to  the  world 
have  been  scrutinized  with  the  strong  search-lights 
of  both  love  and  criticism.  Every  event  of  her  long 
career  has  been  established  by  unimpeachable  rec- 
ords and  testimony.  It  is  no  longer  possible  to  in- 
vent fiction  concerning  the  environment  in  which 
she  was  born  and  reared  or  the  acts  which  make  up 
her  life. 

It  is  possible,  however,  to  minds  careless  of  verity 
or  those  dominated  by  prejudice,  to  distort  facts  by 
exaggerated  statement,  to  deduce  erroneous  con- 
clusions from  improper  handling  of  data,  to  make 
wilful  and  far-fetched  conjectures,  and  to  suppress 
illuminative  information  in  relating  incidents,  — 
information  which  would  reveal  the  true  inwardness 
of  a  situation  otherwise  left  dark  and  sinister.  Such 
coloring  and  molding  of  evidence  is  a  modern 
method  used  for  deducing  a  readable  story  from 
statistical  documents. 

A  story  told  dramatically,  with  high  lights  of 
speculation  and  deep  shadows  of  conjecture,  with 
all  the  fascinating  and  engaging  charm  of  the  nar- 
rator's personal  fancy  woven  into  the  texture,  does 
make  racy  and  entertaining  reading.  It  requires  a 
strong  mind  to  hold  fast  to  simple  truth  under  such 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

guidance.  Because  of  the  pleasure  taken  in  a  good 
story,  whole  pages  of  history  are  mistold  and  some 
of  the  noblest  characters  in  the  world's  annals  have 
been  misrepresented. 

The  average  modern,  rationalistic  and  sophisti- 
cated, would  far  rather  read  Renan's  "Life  of 
Jesus,"  with  its  vivid  coloring,  its  subtle  suggestion, 
its  bold  deduction,  and  human  sympathy,  than  the 
simple  gospel  of  St.  Mark.  Renan  flatters  his 
intellect  and  panders  to  his  sensuality;  he  is  made 
to  feel  himself  superior  in  intelligence  to  the  Lord 
of  this  earth,  and  his  sensual  nature  is  elevated  in 
importance  by  the  argument  that  it  was  the  illusion 
of  an  impassioned  woman  which  gave  to  the  world 
the  idea  of  a  Deity  resurrected  from  the  grave. 

What  an  interpretation  of  Christ's  agony  and 
victory  and  its  proclamation  by  the  purified  and 
sanctified  Mary  Magdalene,  —  she  who  gave  Chris- 
tendom that  immortal  phrase,  "He  is  Risen!"  To 
be  dominated  by  such  interpretation  is  no  less  than 
a  moral  catastrophe  occurring  in  the  region  of  con- 
sciousness; for  not  only  does  Renan's  "Life  of 
Jesus"  entertain,  flatter,  and  excite  the  intellect  as 
an  adventure  in  the  realm  of  ideas,  but,  as  in  the 
case  of  most  intellectual  audacities,  it  leaves  the  ad- 
venturer in  disastrous  confusion.  Renan,  indeed, 
professes  a  delicate  and  reverent  appreciation  for 
the  divine  character  he  so  ruthlessly  handles  and  at 
the  close  of  his  drama  you  behold  him  a  dejected 
chorus  with  tear-bedimmed  eyes,  inviting  you  to 
sigh  with  him  over  the  monstrous  blunder  of  Geth- 
semane.     But  the  reader  finds  no  tears  to  shed. 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

Renan  has  skilfully  unpacked  his  heart  of  its  treas- 
ure, and,  by  lure  and  wile,  stolen  its  birthright,  its 
title  to  divine  heritage. 

Immensely  destructive  is  the  usual  commenda- 
tion of  this  "Life."  Destructive  to  what.?  Can 
imagination  and  diction  destroy  reality,  or,  rather, 
can  they  destroy  that  faith  by  which  the  world  lives, 
the  faith  in  the  reality  of  spiritual  experience  ? 

Now  the  simple  gospel  narrative  tells  a  straight 
story  of  Jesus'  life.  It  is  not  concerned  to  compare 
the  subject  of  its  text  to  other  men  of  the  times  in 
order  to  prove  His  reality.  It  declares  His  acts  as 
they  were,  whether  raising  Jairus'  daughter,  walk- 
ing upon  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  or  feeding  the  multitude ; 
it  reveals  Him  scourged,  spat  upon,  and  crucified, 
without  comment,  and  without  comment  relates  His 
resurrection  and  ascension.  The  gospel  is  there  for 
all  time.  It  was  in  no  haste  to  win  attention  and 
therefore  did  not  need  coloring  or  tricking  out  in 
fancy.  Yes,  the  gospel  stands  after  all  documen- 
tary investigation,  after  the  best  modern  documen- 
tary and  comparative  criticism  can  do,  even  after 
Renan  and  Strauss. 

I  have  a  life  story  to  relate  and  I  plant  myself  un- 
reservedly on  the  methods  of  St.  Mark.  St.  Mark,  I 
believe,  was  a  scribe  who  related  what  he  had  been 
able  to  gather  from  witnesses  in  a  direct  and  un- 
varnished way.  Now  I  shall  endeavor  to  do  simply 
that.  It  is  not  for  me  to  explain  or  to  expound. 
The  facts  of  this  life  shall  be  left  to  elucidate  them- 
selves when  set  in  an  orderly  and  unembellished 
array  before  the  world;    the  import  must  carry  to 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

that  consciousness  able  to  receive  it.     I  shall  con- 
cern myself  only  to  report  the  truth. 

In  gathering  the  facts  from  the  past  I  have  often 
encountered  the  disappointments  of  imperfect  mem- 
ories of  a  small,  a  very  small,  group  of  men  and 
women  of  advanced  years  who  knew  Mrs.  Eddy  in 
her  youth;  but  the  records  in  town  books  have 
yielded  sufficient  information  to  trace  accurately 
Mrs.  Eddy's  residence  from  year  to  year.  This  data 
refutes  certain  unfounded  assertions  which  float 
about  as  loose  rumors,  such  as  that  related  by  an 
aged  woman  in  Maiden  and  printed  in  the  form  of 
an  interview  in  the  Boston  Herald.  This  story  was 
that  a  Mary  Baker  told  fortunes  by  reading  cards  in 
a  mean  street  in  Boston  before  the  Civil  War,  and 
had  told  this  woman's  fortune  and  she  believed  the 
fortune-teller  to  be  Mrs.  Eddy,  the  founder  of 
Christian  Science.  In  the  late  fifties  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  no  longer  Mary  Baker,  but  had  been  twice  mar- 
ried. She  was  then  Mrs.  Patterson,  an  almost  help- 
less invalid,  living  in  North  Groton,  a  village  in 
Northern  New  Hampshire.  She  had  not  visited 
Boston  for  a  long  period  of  years  and  did  not  visit 
it  for  many  years  to  come.  Another  rumor  there 
was  that  a  certain  Mrs.  Glover,  who  was  a  spiritual- 
istic medium,  in  and  around  Boston  during  the 
sixties,  could  be  identified  with  Mary  Baker  Eddy 
as  one  and  the  same  individual.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  discover  who  that  Mary  Baker  was  or  who  that 
Mrs.  Glover,  or  to  establish  that  they  were  individ- 
uals in  nowise  related  to  Mrs.  Eddy.  It  is  only 
necessary  to  tell  minutely  the  facts  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

life  which  are  exclusive  of  all  practices  of  charlatan- 
ism, and  are  at  all  times  stainless  and  honorable. 

All  statements  of  facts  made  in  this  narrative  are 
founded  on  reliable  evidence,  town  registers,  church 
books,  and  court  records.  As  to  the  memories  of  a 
few  old  people  still  surviving  who  associated  with 
Mary  Baker  in  her  youth,  it  must  be  said  that  they 
are  not  always  all  that  could  be  desired,  and  it  is 
fortunate  that  public  records  can  usually  be  de- 
pended upon  to  rectify  careless  assertion.  Compared 
together  these  memories  sometimes  contradict  each 
other;  referred  back  to  themselves,  they  frequently 
shift  and  show^  instability;  and  a  deplorable  thing 
is  that  they  betray  evidence  of  having  been  tam- 
pered with  by  suggestion,  the  imagination  having 
been  incited  by  vanity  or  cupidity. 

To  remember  a  thing  suggested,  with  a  gift  in 
full  view,  is  a  natural  enough  performance  to  chil- 
dren and  to  those  in  second  childhood.  But  what 
should  be  said  of  the  bribers  in  such  a  case  ?  It  is 
to  the  honor  of  human  nature  that  both  men  and 
women  have  resisted  the  offer  of  large  sums  of  money 
to  remember  that  which  would  have  been  conven- 
ient to  the  theories  of  malicious-minded  critics  who 
preceded  me  in  their  investigations. 

So  if  the  intelligence  was  sometimes  staggered  in 
the  search  for  the  truth  about  this  illustrious  woman 
by  encounter  with  malicious  inventions,  clearly  dis- 
cernible because  of  the  known  facts,  the  provable 
facts,  which  correct  them,  it  was  also  frequently 
cheered  and  uplifted  by  touching  the  store  of 
thought  emanating  from  persons  "whose  spirits  and 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

cleanliness  and  freshness  of  mind  and  body  make 
old  age  lovely  and  desirable."  The  writer  has  no- 
where interfered  with  these  memories,  neither  in 
interview  nor  in  transcription;  and  at  the  risk  of 
seeming  unkind  to  lonely  and  impoverished  old 
men  and  women,  whom  a  slight  kindness  by  way  of 
gift  might  have  enlivened,  has  refrained  from  any 
such  act,  lest  it  might  be  said,  to  the  detriment  of  this 
history,  that  the  writer,  too,  had  set  forth  an  in- 
vention, instead  of  the  truth. 

But  it  is  a  task  which  I  have  imposed  upon  my- 
self to  take  the  wheat  of  memory  and  leave  the 
chaff.  I  have  refused  ignoble  deductions  volun- 
teered as  information.  I  have  refrained  from  hand- 
ling the  relics  of  rural  jealousy  strong  enough  to 
endure  for  eighty  years,  babbling  what  it  merely  con- 
jectured almost  a  century  ago  concerning  a  nature 
it  could  not  then  and  cannot  now  comprehend. 

I  ask  the  reader  to  refuse  to  accept  as  biography 
such  gossip  which  the  ephemeral  press  has  detailed. 
For  truth's  sake,  divest  your  mind  of  all  specula- 
tion and  conjecture  by  which  the  true  story  of  this 
life  has  been  so  ruthlessly  caricatured;  divest  it  at 
least  for  the  time,  and  approach  without  prejudice 
for  an  acquaintance  with  this  truly  great  and  sin- 
gular character.  We  as  human  beings  owe  some- 
thing to  the  consciousness  of  the  age,  the  great 
highway  of  souls  to  come  after  us.  We  should  make 
the  path  straight  by  rejecting  wilful  scandal,  how- 
ever amusing  and  diverting,  and  by  choosing  to 
know  the  simple  gospel  truth. 


THE    LIFE 

OF 

MARY   BAKER   EDDY 


THE  LIFE  OF 

MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

CHAPTER  I 

ANCESTRY   AND   GENEALOGY 

FORTY  years  after  the  close  of  the  American 
Revolution  Mary  Baker  was  born  in  the  town 
of  Bow,  New  Hampshire.  Her  birthplace  was  a 
farmhouse  in  the  midst  of  cultivated  acres,  situated 
on  a  crest  of  hills  overlooking  the  broad  valley  of  the 
Merrimac  River.  Bow  was  not  a  village,  but  a 
cluster  of  farms  with  a  town  government,  and  a 
district  school  as  a  center  of  education  and  rural 
politics.  There  was  no  meeting-house,  as  the 
homely  phrase  of  those  days  described  the  church 
edifice,  but  the  God-fearing  of  the  community  at- 
tended divine  worship  either  in  the  adjoining  town 
of  Pembroke,  across  the  river,  or  in  the  neighboring 
city  of  Concord,  the  capital  of  the  state,  from  which 
Bow  is  five  miles  distant. 

Bow  was  a  rural  settlement,  but  it  was  not  remote 
from  the  stirring  forces  of  the  life  of  its  day.  The 
men  who  owned  its  homesteads  had  been  born  in  the 
heat  of  political  struggle.  Their  mothers'  birth- 
pangs  coincided  with  those  of  a  nation.  They  were 
born  individualists  and  democrats.  New  Hamp- 
shire, a  mountainous  state,  originally  covered  with 


2  THE   LIFE   OF  MARY   BAKER  EDDY 

dense  forests,  had  presented  to  its  settlers  a  stern 
struggle  with  nature.  The  grandsires  of  the  men  of 
this  day  had  been  forest  clearers,  woodsmen  w^ho 
had  hewn  down  a  wilderness  of  pines  over  two 
hundred  feet  in  height.  Their  sons  had  grown  tall 
and  sinewy  like  the  trees  they  felled. 

New  Hampshire  lay  on  the  Canadian  frontier  and 
the  French  and  Indian  War  had  swept  it.  Its  ex- 
posed settlements  were  constantly  menaced  by  the 
Indians,  and,  during  the  wars  with  England,  sub- 
ject to  descents  from  Canada.  In  those  early  days 
the  sons  of  New  Hampshire  held  back  the  red  men 
from  the  less  exposed  colonies,  themselves  coming 
face  to  face  with  that  treacherous  warfare  of  the 
forests.  This  life  of  woodsman,  mountaineer,  and 
Indian  fighter  had  produced  a  generation  of  physical 
giants.  Intellectually  these  men  had  been  well-nigh 
as  vigorously  exercised.  The  colonial  settlement 
had  been  fraught  with  bitterest  disputes  over  grants 
and  regrants  from  England,  and  the  surveying  of 
those  woodlands  was  made  in  the  heat  of  conten- 
tion. New  Hampshire  sent  its  delegates  to  the  first 
Continental  Congress,  and  two  signatures  stand  for 
this  state  on  that  charter  of  American  liberty,  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  Two  delegates  rep- 
resented her  in  the  Federal  Congress,  and,  ninth 
of  the  states  in  ratifying  the  Constitution,  New 
Hampshire  in  a  critical  hour  insured  the  success  of 
the  Union.  Two  New  Hampshire  regiments  were 
at  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  The  battle  of  Benning- 
ton, that  turned  the  scale  of  the  war,  was  won  by 
New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  troops  under  General 


ANCESTRY  AND   GENEALOGY  3 

Stark,  who  bore  a  commission  from  New  Hampshire. 
All  through  the  War  of  Independence  New  Hamp- 
shire's contingent  to  the  army  was  liberal.  When  the 
war  closed  New  Hampshire  men  returned  to  the 
duties  of  clearing  farms,  building  schoolhouses,  and 
worshiping  God.  Dartmouth  College  was  founded 
in  1789;  and  soon  the  little  red  schoolhouses 
marked  the  cross-roads  newly  surveyed.  Sixty  or 
eighty  pupils  was  the  average  attendance  at  these 
district  schools  during  the  winter  months  and  learn- 
ing was  prized  in  every  home.  Thus  were  men 
living,  acting,  and  feeling  in  the  early  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century  in  this  particular  community. 
Religion,  schooling,  politics,  and  every  man  his  own 
master,  the  owner  of  his  own  land,  made  that  early 
American  life  a  throbbing,  vital  experience. 

Men  who  counted  in  these  communities  could  not 
be  ignorant  and  unsocial.  They  were  robust  from 
contending  with  nature  and  savages,  intensely 
patriotic  and  versed  in  statescraft,  as  they  had  but 
recently  been  evolving  a  constitution  for  the  new 
world;  religious,  for  they  were  reestablishing  a 
church  of  Christ,  suiting  it  to  democracy  where 
each  man  must  meet  God  for  himself;  scholarly 
they  were,  too,  in  a  large  sense,  for  they  read  the 
best  books  of  England  and  studied  the  journals  of 
the  day,  jealously  watching  the  Old  World,  that  the 
New  World  of  their  dreams  might  not  be  found 
w^anting  in  intellectual  progress.  These  men  founded 
colleges. 

For  six  generations  the  Bakers  had  been  in  New 
England.    Their  history  is  exactly  the  history  of  the 


4  THE   LIFE   OF   MARY   BAKER  EDDY 

typical  son  of  New  Hampshire.  They  had  swung 
the  ax,  carried  the  surveyor's  chain,  shouldered  the 
musket,  fought  off  the  savages,  and  taken  part  in 
government  and  the  establishing  of  churches  and 
schools.  Mark  Baker  lived  on  his  own  farm,  a  tract 
of  five  hundred  acres  inherited  with  his  brother 
James.  His  father  was  the  largest  taxpayer  in  the 
colony.  Mark  Baker  was  a  justice  of  the  peace  for 
his  township,  a  deacon  of  the  church,  a  school  com- 
mitteeman, and  for  many  years  chaplain  of  the  state 
militia.  His  friends  were  the  clergy,  the  lawyers  of 
Concord  and  surrounding  towns,  a  governor  of  his 
state,  upon  whose  staff  a  son  served.  A  future 
president  of  the  United  States  was  an  occasional 
guest  at  his  home.  But  his  friends  also  were  astute 
men  of  business,  mill  owners,  builders,  men  destined 
to  change  the  character  of  the  state  from  agricultural 
to  manufacturing. 

The  family  life  at  Bow  was  not  set  in  a  deadly 
routine  of  depressing  labor.  To  so  conceive  "it  is  to 
fail  to  rise  to  the  true  viewpoint  which  shall  help  us 
to  understand  the  character  we  are  considering. 
There  never  was  a  time  in  history  when  a  people 
were  more  alive  and  progressive  than  the  Americans 
after  the  War  of  Independence.  There  was  no 
neighborhood  in  America  more  admirably  situated  to 
reap  the  full  benefit  of  that  peculiar,  intense,  spiritual 
culture  than  was  the  town  of  Bow,  five  miles  from 
the  city  of  Concord.  Franklin  Pierce  and  Daniel 
Webster  were  reared  under  these  identical  condi- 
tions. Emerson  and  Hawthorne  have  declared  the 
conditions  admirable  for  developing  genius. 


ANCESTRY   AND   GENEALOGY  5 

Mary  Baker  Eddy's  ancestry  can  be  traced  clearly 
through  six  generations  to  the  first  Baker  in  America, 
her  earliest  emigrant  ancestor  being  John  Baker, 
who  was  freeman  in  Charlestown,  Massachusetts, 
in  1634.  The  generations  succeeding,  eliminating 
all  but  the  direct  line,  are  Thomas,  of  Roxbury; 
a  second  Thomas,  of  Roxbury,  who  married  Sarah 
Pike;  Joseph,  born  1714,  deacon  of  the  Congrega- 
tional church,  who  held  a  captain's  commission. 
He  was  the  surveyor  of  several  towns  in  that  part  of 
the  colony  of  New  Hampshire  which  was  claimed  by 
Massachusetts,  —  among  the  rest,  of  Pembroke, 
where  he  afterwards  settled.  He  married,  1739, 
Hannah  Love  well,  only  daughter  of  Captain  John 
Lovewell.  Hannah  was  born  1721,  was  heir  to  one 
third  the  estate  of  Captain  Lovewell  and  inherited 
with  her  husband  the  lands  assigned  to  her  distin- 
guished father  in  Pembroke. 

Captain  Joseph  Baker  had  a  son  Joseph,  born 
1740,  who  married  Marion  Moor  McNeil,  a  descend- 
ant of  the  Scotch  Covenanters.  They  settled  in 
Bow.  Their  youngest  son  was  Mark  Baker,  born 
1785.  He  was  the  father  of  Mary  Baker.  So  the 
generations  run  thus :  Mary,  Mark,  Joseph,  Joseph, 
Thomas,  Thomas,  John,  —  which  takes  the  record 
back  almost  to  Plymouth  Rock. 

An  examination  of  the  genealogy  of  the  wives  of 
the  Bakers  reveals  that  the  influx  was  of  good  blood 
through  the  maternal  strains.  The  Pikes  of  New 
England  have  an  honorable  and  interesting  geneal- 
ogy. Hannah  Lovewell,  great-grandmother  of 
Mary  Baker  and  born  just  one  century  before  her. 


6  THE   LIFE   OF   MARY   BAKER  EDDY 

transmits  the  courageous  heart  of  her  soldier  father. 
Captain  John  Lovewell  lost  his  life  in  a  severe  fight 
with  the  Indians  at  Pigwacket,  now  Fryeburg, 
Maine,  an  encounter  so  desperate  that  it  is  recorded 
in  Colonial  records  and  is  known  as  Lovewell's 
Fight.  This  Lovewell's  father  was  an  ensign  in 
Cromwell's  army  and  lived  to  the  great  age  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  years.  Hannah  Lovewell  was 
one  of  the  bravest  women  of  the  colonies. 

Marion  Moor  McNeil,  the  paternal  grandmother 
of  Mary  Baker,  was  a  descendant  of  the  McNeils  of 
Edinburgh.  Her  father  and  mother,  John  McNeil 
and  Marion  Moor,  came  to  America  seeking  re- 
ligious liberty  and  bringing  a  rich  store  of  memories 
and  traditions.  They  possessed  a  heavy  sword 
encased  in  a  brass  scabbard,  with  the  inscription  of 
an  ancestor's  name  that  stated  it  had  been  bestowed 
by  Sir  William  Wallace.  General  John  McNeil  of 
New  Hampshire,  who  won  distinction  by  leading  a 
bayonet  charge  in  the  battle  of  Chippewa  in  the  War 
of  1812,  was  a  cousin  of  Marion  McNeil  Baker.^ 

'  This  is  the  McNeil  connection.  I  shall  not  trace  it  beyond  America. 
Fannie  McNeil,  niece  of  Franklin  Pierce,  afterwards  wife  of  Judge  Potter  of 
Washington,  was  a  daughter  of  that  General  John  McNeil.  She  claimed  a 
cousinship  with  Mary  Baker  Eddy.  This  Fannie  McNeil,  who  during  Pierce's 
administration  frequently  relieved  his  invalid  wife  of  social  duties  as  mistress 
of  the  White  House,  traced  as  she  supposed  the  McNeil  line  to  which  she  be- 
longed directly  to  Sir  John  McNeil  of  Edinburgh.  She  adopted  the  McNeil 
crest  for  her  coat  of  arms.  Mrs.  Eddy  visited  her  in  Washington  in  1880. 
Together  they  made  a  journey  to  the  grave  of  General  McNeil.  They  thor- 
oughly discussed  the  McNeil  family  history,  the  bravery  of  its  fighting  heroes, 
the  deep  religious  conviction  of  its  covenanting  faith.  Mrs.  Eddy  recalled  her 
grandmother's  influence  upon  her  whole  life,  an  influence  which  shall  presently 
be  indicated.  She  therefore  adopted  with  her  cousin,  Fannie  McNeil,  the 
McNeil  crest  and  coat  of  arms.  She  adopted  it  for  sentiment  and  affection. 
Its  motto  could  not  have  better  expressed  the  traits  of  character  transmitted 


ANCESTRY   AND    GENEALOGY  7 

Leaving  the  Baker  genealogy  for  Mrs.  Eddy's 
maternal  ancestry,  in  the  same  history  of  New 
Hampshire  families  it  is  stated  that  Mark  Baker 
married  Abigail  Ambrose  of  Pembroke.  She  was 
the  daughter  of  Deacon  Nathaniel  Ambrose,  a  man 
at  once  pious  and  public-spirited.  He  gave  the 
money  for  the  first  Congregational  church  built  in 
Pembroke.  Mrs.  Eddy's  mother  and  the  grand- 
mother of  Hoke  Smith,  ex-governor  of  Georgia, 
were  sisters.  Governor  Smith's  father  wrote  the 
following  letter  at  the  time  of  a  public  discussion  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  family,  a  discussion  which  lacked  a 
proper  comprehension  of  the  family's  standing  in  its 
community  and  its  honorable  connections.  Mr. 
Smith  sent  the  letter  to  the  publication  committee  of 
the  Christian  Science  Church  which  allows  this 
reprint : 

582  West  Peachtree  Street,  Atlanta,  Ga.,  Dec.  28,  1906. 

I  have  known  the  Rev.  Mary  Baker  Eddy  from 
childhood.     She  is  my   first  cousin.     Her  mother 

through  a  long  line  to  her.  It  is:  Vincere  aid  Mori.  The  crest  was  carved  in 
the  mahogany  of  the  lintel  above  the  inner  vestibule  entrance  of  her  beautiful 
home  on  Commonwealth  avenue,  Boston,  where  she  resided  before  her  retire- 
ment to  Pleasant  View.  She  also  used  the  crest  as  a  seal  and  expressed  her 
pleasure  in  the  sentiment  of  the  Scotch  strain  by  having  the  coat  of  arms  em- 
broidered on  white  silk  and  hung  in  her  hbrary. 

But  a  sudden  denial  to  her  rights  so  to  enjoy  this  connection  with  the  Scotch 
McNeils  came  through  a  Scottish  descendant  of  the  McNeils  li\ang  in  Aber- 
deen. Whereupon  Mrs.  Eddy  had  a  thorough  investigation  of  her  genealogy 
made  and  being  unable  to  establish  the  accuracy  of  Fannie  McNeil's  genea- 
logical claims,  upon  which  she  had  hitherto  rested,  she  requested  that  aU 
biographers  refrain  from  connecting  her  with  the  Rt.  Honorable  Sir  John 
McNeil,  G.C.B.,  of  Edinburgh,  sometime  ambassador  to  Persia.  It  is  there- 
fore sufficient  to  state  that  Mary  Baker  Eddy's  great-grandparents  were 
McNeils;  that  General  John  McNeil,  the  American  hero,  was  her  grand- 
mother's cousin. 


8  THE   LIFE   OF   MARY   BAKER  EDDY 

was  my  mother's  younger  sister.  She  [Mary  Baker 
Eddy]  was  always  a  beloved  visitor  in  our  home. 
We  corresponded  for  several  years  while  I  was  in 
college;  the  correspondence  ended  with  my  regret. 
I  have  always  admired  my  cousin's  sincerity  and 
devotion  to  good  works.  Her  brother  Albert  was 
one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  of  New  Hampshire;  but 
Mary  was  deemed  the  most  scholarly  member  of 
her  family.  She  has  always  held  a  sacred  place  in 
my  heart.  It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  find  that 
God  is  always  protecting  her. 

H.  H.  Smith. 


CHAPTER    II 

CHILDHOOD   DAYS 

rin  describing  the  conditions  of  life  which  bred 
New  Hampshire  giants,  with  its  granite  in  their 
will  and  its  hemlock  in  their  soul's  fiber,  one  should 
neglect  to  indicate  the  beauty  of  summer  days,  or 
the  clear,  cold  magnificence  of  winter  months,  in 
that  mountainous  upland,  one  would  err  in  stating 
but  half-truths  of  the  environing  influences,  even 
though  his  efforts  were  but  timid  strokes. 

The  allurement  which  drew  settlers  into  this  region 
in  the  early  days  was  doubtless  the  glorified  face  of 
Nature.  Here  was  no  prairie,  easily  tilled ;  here  were 
no  gold  mines,  promising  sudden  wealth.  But  there 
was  a  constant  uplift  for  the  heart,  vaguely  felt  more 
often  than  it  was  understood.  There  is  an  enchant- 
ment in  the  New  Hampshire  panorama,  the  series 
of  great  pictures  which  unroll  in  one  continuous 
stretch  of  glorious  scenery,  an  enchantment  so  per- 
vading that  it  is  never  forgotten.  A  logger  on  the 
mountain-side  to-day  looks  down  with  indifference 
upon  a  transient  tourist.  The  logger's  cup  of  con- 
tent is  full  if  he  can  make  a  bare  living  in  the 
forest. 

Summer  spreads  for  the  son  of  New  Hampshire 
a  shimmering  wonder  of  green  and  gold  with  silver 
rivers  winding  placidly,  fed  by  those  headlong  tor- 


10  THE   LIFE   OF   MARY   BAKER  EDDY 

rents  farther  up  in  the  rocky  hills,  where  the  burn- 
ing breasts  of  the  mountains  are  lifted  from  their 
headless  shoulders.  There,  too,  like  Victory's,  is 
seen  the  stride  of  their  sheer  descents,  throwing  back 
the  clouds  for  draperies.  This  is  summer,  summer 
of  ripening  grain  fields,  summer  of  odorous,  melo- 
dious South  winds,  balsam-scented  and  hemlock- 
tuned. 

Autumn's  brilliant  moment  of  splendor  passes  and 
the  traveler  flees  before  the  sere  and  drear  November, 
gray,  brown,  and  sodden  with  fog  and  freezing  tears. 
The  mountaineer  stays  and  cuts  his  logs.  Now  the 
great  nature  painting  of  all  the  seasons  is  preparing. 
The  frost  has  bitten,  the  snow  has  fallen,  and  once 
more  the  sun  shines  forth.  Behold  the  blue  peaks, 
lifted  above  the  green  of  the  hemlock  and  the  pine, 
and  the  dazzling  sweep  of  virgin  snow.  The  air  is 
stimulating  and  purifying.  Over  this  land  bends  a 
sky  which  gathers  its  true  sons  to  her  heart,  whose 
stars  are  eloquent,  whose  storms  are  majestic,  whose 
day-dawns  are  passionately  tender. 

The  farmer  and  the  mountaineer  of  to-day  feel 
the  divine  salute  of  Nature  as  did  the  early  settlers 
of  the  state.  They  are  sustained  in  their  life  of  toil 
by  the  same  enchantment.  But  one  circumstance 
of  life,  one  sacred  influence  they  have  lost,  homely 
but  potent.  That  is  the  fireplace  of  their  ancestors. 
In  the  living  room  of  the  early  farmhouses  huge  logs 
were  burned,  and  this  resinous  fire,  like  a  pure 
spiritual  force  subduing  nature  to  the  will  of  man, 
yielded  a  glory  to  the  homely  walls,  lighted  up  the 
faces  of  the  family  circle,  drawing  each  member 


CHILDHOOD   DAYS  11 

into  a  hallowed  area,  making  a  sanctified  center  of 
their  existence. 

So  it  should  be  realized  it  was  the  union  of  beauty 
and  severity  that  gave  to  the  New  Hampshire  char- 
acter at  its  best  the  giant  soul,  —  giant  for  wrestling 
toil,  giant  for  deep  and  long-enduring  pain,  giant  in 
its  capacity  for  thinking  and  loving. 

Mark  Baker's  farm  in  Bow  lay  on  the  uplands. 
It  was  cleared  and  cultivated  by  his  father  and  older 
brothers  before  him.  The  farmhouse  was  situated 
on  the  summit  of  a  hill  from  which,  in  gradual  un- 
dulations, the  land  sloped  to  the  Merrimac  River. 
The  view  included  three  townships  and  was  broad 
and  picturesque  rather  than  grand.  Mountains 
there  are  in  the  distance;  but  this  region  of  the 
state  is  scarcely  in  the  foot-hills,  though  its  rugged 
uplift  gives  promise  of  the  vast  range  on  the  far 
horizon. 

The  farmhouse  faced  the  South.  It  was  unpainted 
in  those  days  and  consisted  of  a  two-story  and  a  half 
main  building  with  a  sloping-roofed  ell.  In  the  main 
building  was  the  living  room  with  its  great  fireplace 
and  the  best  chamber  adjoining.  Above  these  were 
two  chambers  and  the  garret.  In  the  rear  were 
kitchen  and  butteries  with  chambers  above.  The 
stables  were  at  one  side,  so  that  a  long  feeding-shed 
connecting  them  with  the  house-shed  at  right  angles 
made  a  wind  break  against  the  North  wind  for  the 
dooryard.  This  was  a  sunny  spot  for  the  farm 
fowls,  and  a  place  also  where  logs  were  trimmed, 
horses  groomed,  and  wagons  loaded  for  the  market. 


12  THE   LIFE   OF   MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

A  sunny  garden  surrounded  the  front  door  on 
the  South  in  which  in  summer  were  Hlacs  and  roses 
and  old-fashioned  marigolds.  To  the  East  was  the 
orchard  enclosed  by  a  stone  wall  three  feet  broad, 
part  of  which  is  still  intact,  though  necessarily  it  has 
been  rebuilt  and  repaired  innumerable  times.  The 
breadth  of  the  walls  tells  the  story  of  the  labor  in- 
volved in  clearing  the  farm  not  only  of  timber  but 
of  rocks.  Across  the  road  were  pastures  and  grain 
fields,  while  to  the  North  and  beyond  the  orchard 
and  stables  were  woodlands. 

That  the  house  was  well  constructed  and  com- 
fortable is  attested  by  its  century-old  frame  which 
still  stands,  swept  by  storm  and  brooded  over  by 
sunshine  on  the  now  untenanted  lands  still  belong- 
ing to  Bakers.  The  sheds  have  been  torn  away 
and  only  the  shell  remains.  It  has  been  removed  to 
a  place  by  itself  on  the  edge  of  the  pasture  land, 
and  one  old  apple  tree  blooms  each  spring  at  the 
chamber  window  where  Mary  Baker  first  saw  the 
light. 

The  day  of  her  birth  was  July  16,  1821.  Mary 
was  the  youngest  child.  Her  brothers  were  Samuel, 
Albert,  and  George ;  her  sisters,  Abigail  and  Martha. 
The  children  were  not  far  apart  in  years.  Albert 
was  ten  and  Abigail  scarcely  more  than  six  when 
Mary  was  born.  Albert  and  Abigail,  of  them  all, 
were  especially  tender  to  the  baby  sister,  and  in  the 
years  to  come  exercised  greater  care  for  her,  —  the 
brother  in  her  education,  and  the  sister  during  her 
invalid  widowhood. 

A  beloved  member  of  the  household  when  Mary 


CHILDHOOD   DAYS  13 

was  born  was  the  venerable  grandmother  Baker 
who  received  this  babe  into  her  arms  with  a  special 
solicitation  to  God.  She  conferred  upon  it  the  name 
Mary,  which  was  her  own  name  and  that  of  her 
mother  before  her.  Grandmother  Baker's  chair 
stood  by  the  fireplace.  She  overlooked  the  farm- 
yard, and  its  busy  occupations  when  she  glanced  up 
from  her  knitting;  or,  sending  her  glances  out 
through  the  front  door,  open  on  a  heated  summer 
day,  she  saw  the  bees  drowsing  in  the  flowers,  the 
bending  grain  beyond  where  the  South  winds  made 
billows  of  light  and  shade.  A  precious  care  was  in 
her  charge.  Ever  and  anon  she  touched  with  her 
foot  the  rocker  of  the  cradle,  or  bent  to  scan  the 
features  of  the  babe  sleeping  there  and  so  through 
the  heat  of  August  and  the  cool  September  she 
was  the  good  angel  watching  and  guarding. 

The  household  tasks  were  not  light  for  the  mother 
of  early  New  England  days;  she  could  not  brood 
over  a  cradle.  Mrs.  Baker  was  industrious  and 
placid  of  spirit,  and  the  placidity  meant  much  for 
the  spirit  of  her  home.  She  could  brew  and  bake 
and  care  for  her  dairy,  scour  and  sew  and  weave 
and  dye  —  all  women  did  this  in  those  days  —  and 
it  is  reported  of  Mrs.  Baker  that  she  was  "capable." 
But  Mrs.  Baker  found  time  for  the  unusual,  for 
visiting  the  sick  and  administering  to  the  needy; 
for  entertaining  her  friends  and  maintaining  the 
social  life;  for  overseeing  her  children's  education 
and  holding  the  family  to  high  spiritual  ideals.  It 
is  not  sufficient  to  say  of  her  that  she  was  a  capable, 
conscientious  New  England  woman;   this  she  was. 


14  THE   LIFE   OF   MARY   BAKER   EDDY 

but  more.  And  she  has  left  behind  her  memories 
that  attest  it. 

Mrs.  Baker  was  one  of  those  rare  mothers  of  that 
period  who  found  time  for  reading;  and  when 
guests  filled  her  house,  relatives,  clergymen,  or  men 
of  affairs,  her  judgments  and  observations  were 
sought  and  her  influence  in  conversation  was  re- 
ported inspiring  and  uplifting.  She  was  no  Penel- 
ope, silent  at  her  own  fireside  while  the  guests  alone 
enjoyed  social  discourse.  From  touching  mind  and 
heart  with  these  guests  while  serving  them  with  hos- 
pitable attentions,  she  deduced  ideas  for  the  benefit 
of  her  children,  ideas  which  she  applied  to  each  ac- 
cording to  his  temperament.  After  her  death  her 
clergyman,  the  Rev.  Richard  S.  Rust,  D.D.,  "who," 
Mrs.  Eddy  says,  "knew  my  sainted  mother  in  all 
the  walks  of  life,"  wrote  of  her  as  one  who  possessed 
a  presence  which  made  itself  felt  like  gentle  dew  and 
cheerful  light.  He  said  she  possessed  a  strong  intel- 
lect, a  sympathizing  heart,  and  a  placid  spirit,  and 
as  a  mother  was  untiring  in  her  efforts  to  secure  the 
happiness  of  her  family. 

But  the  hands  of  this  mother  who  labored  untir- 
ingly were  filled  with  duties  in  a  home  made  pros- 
perous through  personal  toil.  It  was  an  early  Ameri- 
can farm  and  the  farm  life  hummed  industriously 
from  early  morn  until  starlight,  forwarded  by  the 
energy  and  will  of  both  parents.  Visible  through 
the  small-paned  windows  was  the  farm's  center  of 
activity  where  the  father  and  brothers  went  to  and 
fro,  now  to  the  fields  and  now  to  the  town,  removing 
logs  and  rock,  tending  sheep  and  cattle,  handling 


CHILDHOOD   DAYS  16 

grain  and  fruits.  Within  the  kitchen,  mother  and 
daughters  worked  not  less  continuously,  laundry  and 
dairy,  needle  and  loom,  claiming  the  attention  in 
rhythmic  succession.  And  of  all  these  workers  one 
knows  the  mother  was  earliest  astir  and  latest  to 
rest. 

And  so  Mary  Baker  grew  through  infancy  at  her 
grandmother's  knee  and  imbibed  her  grandmother's 
stories  and  songs ;  her  grandmother's  recollections 
and  store  of  spiritual  wisdom  were  poured  into  the 
hungering  mind  agape  like  a  young  robin's  mouth. 
And  what  stories  these  were  and  how  they  thrilled 
the  awakening  imagination !  for  this  grandmother, 
descended  from  the  Scotch  Covenanters,  could  tell 
dramatic  tales  of  a  land  torn  by  religious  dissen- 
sions for  nearly  a  century. 

We  can  imagine  the  little  Mary  on  a  certain  day 
taken  by  her  grandmother  to  visit  the  garret.  Up 
the  steep  stairs  they  climb  together,  the  baby  hand 
confidingly  in  the  brown  and  wrinkled  one.  Up 
here  under  the  low-slanting  roof,  amidst  odors  of 
lavender,  catnip,  and  sage,  in  a  dusty  gray  twilight, 
weird  because  of  the  stray  sunbeams  that  pierce  it, 
grandmother  takes  from  the  depths  of  an  old  chest 
the  sword  of  a  far-away  Scottish  ancestor,  the  blade 
rusting  in  its  brass  scabbard.  The  child  is  allowed 
to  handle  it,  tries  to  draw  the  blade,  and  with  great 
eyes  hears  its  history.  Then  as  she  still  tugs  at  it, 
grandmother  kneeling  back  on  her  heels  sings  in 
quavering  accents,  "Scots  who  hae  wi'  Wallace 
bled." 

"How  long  ago  was  it  that  Sir  William  Wallace 


16  THE   LIFE   OF   MARY   BAKER  EDDY 

drove  the  English  out  of  the  highlands  and  back 
to  their  own  lands?" 

"Five  hundred  years  ago.  Yes,  for  five  hundred 
years  that  sword  has  been  handed  down  from  kins- 
man to  kinsman.  My  father's  father's  fathers  were 
Highlanders,  wore  the  kilt  and  trampled  the  purple 
heather  and  played  the  bagpipes  that  summoned 
the  clans." 

"But  why  did  your  father  and  mother  leave  Scot- 
land, grandmother.?" 

"We  came  away  for  reUgious  liberty,  child,  that 
we  might  worship  God  according  to  our  conscience." 

"But  I  should  not  have  run  away.  And  I  should 
have  worshiped  God  according  to  my  conscience.  And 
they  could  have  taken  their  swords  and  killed  me." 

"Ay,  they  did  that,  my  bairn;  the  blood  was 
spilled  of  many  a  God-fearing  man.  Your  an- 
cestors wrote  their  names  on  the  covenant  in  blood, 
and  that  meant  they  would  keep  the  covenant  with 
their  life  blood.  Ay,  dearie,  dearie;  it  was  a  long 
and  bitter  and  terrible  strife,  but  religion  was  more 
to  our  ancestors  than  their  lives." 

"What  is  religion  ?  "  asks  the  child,  dropping  the 
sword  and  resting  her  hands  on  her  grandmother's 
shoulders. 

"Religion  is  to  know  and  worship  God." 

And  there  in  the  twilight  of  the  garret  the  child 
fell  a  wondering,  doubtless  making  then  and  there 
her  covenant,  while  the  grandmother  returned  to 
rummaging  in  the  old  chest  which  had  crossed  the 
ocean.  Now  the  grandmother  took  from  the  chest 
some  old  newspapers,  yellow  with  age,  together  with 


CHILDHOOD    DAYS  17 

certain  old  manuscripts.  She  carried  these  down  to 
the  Hving  room  and  there  on  occasions  read  from 
them  various  stories  to  the  Httle  girl. 

These  stories  were  of  Washington,  of  Valley  Forge, 
of  the  surrender  of  Lord  Cornwallis,  of  the  farewell 
of  the  commander-in-chief  to  his  troops,  and  of  the 
death  and  burial  of  the  first  American  president. 
The  stories  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  child's 
mind  and  she  put  many  questions  to  her  father 
concerning  these  events,  causing  the  theme  of  the 
family  conversation  around  the  fireside  to  be  set  to  a 
patriotic  key. 

'*I  remember,"  says  Mrs.  Eddy  in  "Retrospection 
and  Introspection,"  written  at  least  sixty  years  after 
these  times,  "reading  in  my  childhood  certain 
manuscripts  containing  Scriptural  sonnets  besides 
other  verses  and  enigmas  which  my  grandmother 
said  were  written  by  my  great-grandmother.  .  .  .  My 
childhood  was  also  gladdened  by  one  of  my  grand- 
mother Baker's  books,  printed  in  olden  type  and 
replete  with  the  phraseology  current  in  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries.  Among  grand- 
mother's treasures  were  some  newspapers  yellow 
with  age.  Some  of  these,  however,  were  not  very 
ancient,  nor  had  they  crossed  the  ocean,  for  they 
were  American  newspapers,  one  of  which  contained 
a  full  account  of  the  death  and  burial  of  George 
Washington." 

The  grandmother  cherished  the  idea  that  Hannah 
More  was  a  relative  in  some  way  to  her  mother. 
She  talked  of  the  pious  authoress  and  of  the  fact 
that  her  mother  had  written  the  manuscripts  she 


18  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

displayed.  The  family  rejected  the  idea  of  rela- 
tionship with  the  English  authoress,  but  Mary,  Hs- 
tening  to  these  discussions  of  literary  talents  inherent 
in  the  blood  of  her  forebears,  early  resolved  to  grow  up 
wise  enough  to  write  a  book.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
the  great  resolutions  of  her  life,  already  infused  with 
tenacious  qualities  of  loving  and  willing,  were  made 
under  the  inspiration  of  the  religious  grandmother. 

From  the  reading  of  these  old  books  and  papers 
the  child  acquired  a  grave  and  dignified  way  of 
speaking.  Mary's  sayings  were  quoted  frequently, 
in  a  different  spirit,  by  different  members  of  the 
family.  The  grandmother  would  repeat  them  dot- 
ingly,  the  father,  with  grim  humor  to  his  guests,  and 
her  gifted  brother,  teasingly  and  lovingly.  He  was 
at  this  time  preparing  for  college. 

Mark  Baker  was  too  busy  a  man  for  much  leisure 
with  his  family,  yet  he  had  time  to  guide  each  son 
to  a  successful  career.  Mary,  the  youngest  daughter 
of  the  flock,  delicate  in  health  from  her  birth,  was 
not  easily  understood  by  this  man  of  iron  will.  She 
perplexed  him  with  her  sage  sayings  and  grave 
doings.  The  strange  stories  told  about  this  little 
one  by  the  grandmother  and  mother  made  him 
wonder  sometimes  with  deep  concern. 

The  story  that  most  perplexed  him  was  that  of 
Mary's  "Voices."  When  but  eight  years  old  Mary 
frequently  came  to  her  mother,  asking  her  earnestly 
what  she  wanted  of  her.  "Nothing,  child,"  her 
mother  would  reply. 

"But,  mother,  who  did  call  me  .^"  she  would  be- 
seech.   "I  heard  some  one  call  *  Mary '  three  times  !  '* 


CHILDHOOD    DAYS  19 

This  assertion  that  some  one  was  calling  her  was 
continually  made  by  the  child  for  nearly  a  year, 
until  her  parents  grew  anxious  for  her  health. 
"Take  the  books  away  from  her,"  said  her  father; 
"her  brain  is  too  big  for  her  body." 

Accordingly  she  was  sent  to  romp  in  the  fields, 
to  gather  berries  and  wild  flowers  along  the  walls, 
to  sing  among  the  bees.  She  must  not  hear  so  many 
exciting  tales,  or  be  allowed  to  brood  in  fancy.  As 
the  summer  turned  into  fall  she  must  needs  be  more 
indoors,  but  her  brother  Albert  found  her  on  a  drear 
November  evening,  huddled  close  to  the  pasture 
wall,  singing  softly.  The  noisy  pigs  were  squealing 
in  the  sty  and  the  child  had  stolen  out  from  the 
warm  fireside  to  sing  to  them,  thinking  they  needed 
comfort  before  they  would  go  to  sleep.  Carrying 
her  in  on  his  shoulder,  her  brother  deposited  her  in 
her  grandmother's  arms,  telling  merrily  of  the  quaint 
lullaby. 

"But,"  said  the  child  excitedly,  "they  are  crying 
and  it  must  be  because  it's  cold  and  dark  out  there." 

"God  cares  for  all  his  creatures,  my  bairn,"  said 
the  grandmother,  soothing  and  caressing  the  chilled 
little  maiden. 

The  voices  had  not  ceased  to  call  the  little  girl, 
but  Mary  had  ceased  to  respond  to  them.  Mrs. 
Eddy  has  told  of  these  persistent  callings  which 
were  heard  by  her  for  some  twelve  months,  and  in 
her  autobiography  says: 

One  day  when  my  cousin,  Mehi table  Huntoon, 
was  visiting  us,  and  I  sat  in  a  little  chair  by  her  side, 
in  the  same  room  with  grandmother,  the  call  again 


20  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

came,  so  loud  that  Mehitable  heard  it,  though  I 
had  ceased  to  notice  it.  Greatly  surprised,  my  cousin 
turned  to  me  and  said,  "Your  mother  is  caUing  you  ! " 
...  I  then  left  the  room,  went  to  my  mother,  and 
once  more  asked  her  if  she  had  summoned  me.  She 
answered  as  always  before.  Then  I  earnestly  de- 
clared my  cousin  had  heard  the  voice  and  said  that 
mother  wanted  me.  Accordingly  she  returned  with 
me  to  grandmother's  room,  and  led  my  cousin  to 
an  adjoining  apartment.  The  door  was  ajar  and 
I  listened  with  bated  breath.  Mother  told  Mehitable 
all  about  this  mysterious  voice  and  asked  if  she 
really  did  hear  Mary's  name  pronounced  in  audi- 
ble tones.  My  cousin  answered  quickly  and  em- 
phasized her  affirmations.  That  night  before  going 
to  rest  my  mother  read  to  me  the  Scriptural  narra- 
tive of  little  Samuel,  and  bade  me,  when  the  voice 
called  again,  to  reply  as  he  did,  "  Speak,  Lord,  for 
thy  servant  heareth."  The  voice  came;  but  I  was 
afraid,  and  did  not  answer.  Afterward  I  wept,  and 
prayed  that  God  would  forgive  me,  resolving  to 
do  next  time  as  my  mother  had  bidden  me.  When 
the  call  came  again,  I  did  answer  in  the  words  of 
Samuel,  and  never  again  to  the  material  senses  was 
that  mysterious  call  repeated.^ 

What  wisdom  and  love  in  this  spiritual-minded 
mother,  causing  her  to  guide  her  child  into  the  full 
benefit  of  her  first  deep  religious  experience !  She 
did  not  contradict,  rebuke,  or  deride;  but  guided 
gently  part  of  the  way,  then  left  the  child  to  go  up 
alone  to  that  mount  of  sacred  experience  which  no 
two  human  beings,  however  tender  their  relation, 
can  ascend  together. 

'  "Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  17. 


CHAPTER  III 

EDUCATION  AND  DEVELOPMENT 

THOUGH  we  instinctively  give  heredity  and 
natural  environment  a  close  scrutiny  and  re- 
spectful consideration  in  viewing  a  character,  we 
still  behold  how  Destiny  strikes  through  circum- 
stances, and  grasping  a  life,  drags  it  root  and  all 
from  its  soil  and  culture  to  replant  it  for  its  great 
development.  We  shall  see  how  love  seized  Mary 
Baker  and  drew  her  out  of  Puritanism  to  fit  her  for 
leadership  in  a  warfare  against  materialism. 

All  the  Baker  children  went  to  school  at  the  cross- 
roads, about  a  mile  from  the  farmhouse  on  the  way 
to  Concord.  When  Mary  began  her  schooling,  her 
oldest  brother,  Samuel,  with  New  England  perti- 
nacity, had  gone  to  Boston  to  learn  the  trade  of  mason 
from  which  he  steadily  developed  into  a  contractor 
and  builder  of  considerable  importance.  He  built 
many  brick  buildings  and  rows  of  houses  which 
still  stand  in  Boston.  Her  brother  Albert  entered 
Dartmouth  College  when  Mary  was  nine  and  re- 
turned home  when  she  was  thirteen.  He  studied 
law  with  Franklin  Pierce  at  Hillsborough,  and  later 
spent  a  year  in  the  office  of  Richard  Fletcher  of 
Boston  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  both  Massa- 
chusetts   and    New    Hampshire.      The    youngest 


22  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

brother  was  also  through  with  the  district  school 
when  Mary  began  her  formal  studies. 

Abigail,  Martha,  and  Mary  trudged  to  school 
alone  along  the  country  roads,  their  brother  George 
calling  to  fetch  them  home  in  stormy  weather.  It 
soon  developed  that  Mary  could  not  endure  the 
severe  routine  of  the  district  schoolroom  where  rest- 
less farmers'  children,  with  noisily  shuffling  feet, 
droned  through  their  lessons,  and  indulged  in  occa- 
sional rude  pranks  that  ended  in  birchings.  The 
ungraded  district  schools  were  at  that  time  over- 
crowded  and  nerve-straining  to  pupil  and  teacher 
alike. 

Mary,  who  could  not  endure  to  hear  the  calves 
bawl  or  the  pigs  squeal  in  their  own  farmyard  without 
an  effort  to  comfort  them,  was  depressed  or  excited 
by  the  turbulence  of  school  life.  She  was  therefore 
soon  taken  out  of  that  experience  and  went  on  with 
her  books  at  home.  The  grandmother,  full  of  years, 
had  passed  out  of  the  home  scene  and  Mary  now 
came  directly  under  the  guidance  and  observation 
of  her  mother  and  also  saw  her  father  more  freely 
now  that  the  boys  were  away.  Her  mother  she 
thought  a  saint,  her  father  an  embodied  intellect 
and  will. 

Her  father  would  enter  the  house  from  his  farm 
work,  his  mind  abstracted  with  business  purposes, 
and  would  seat  himself  at  the  old  secretary  to  WTite 
for  an  hour  or  arrange  papers  from  his  strong  box. 
He  was  called  upon  to  do  much  business  for  his 
town,  making  out  deeds  and  settling  disputes.  Up 
to  the  front  door  would  drive  two  wrangling  farmers 


EDUCATION  AND  DEVELOPMENT  23 

with  a  grievance.  Mary,  a  shy  spectator,  beheld  her 
father's  unvarying  courtesy,  his  stern  repression  of 
profanity  or  angry  speech.  On  one  occasion  when 
his  judgment  was  not  accepted  and  one  of  the  dis- 
putants angrily  protested,  the  child  from  her  corner, 
imitating  her  father's  dignified  bearing,  though  in 
the  soft  voice  of  her  mother,  interpolated,  "Mr. 
Bartlett,  why  do  you  articulate  so  vociferously.^" 

The  unexpected  rebuke  coming  from  a  child 
and  in  such  unfamiliar  words,  caused  a  burst  of 
laughter,  followed  by  general  good  humor  and  the 
neighbors  departed  in  peace.  "Mary  settled  that 
quarrel,"  said  her  father  with  his  grim  smile,  and 
for  years  after  her  speech  was  quoted  whenever  a 
turbulent  social  spirit  threatened  the  general 
harmony. 

Often  the  minister  from  Pembroke,  "Priest" 
Burnham,  as  he  was  called,  the  man  who  was  active 
in  founding  Pembroke  Academy,  would  drive  up 
to  the  farm  to  discuss  with  Mark  Baker  church 
matters,  prolonging  his  visit  to  elucidate  the  faulty 
doctrine  of  a  rebellious  parishioner.  Condemning  all 
such  to  eternal  judgment  with  theological  satisfac- 
tion, the  clergyman  would  offer  prayer,  after  which, 
before  departing,  he  would  accept  with  benign  gra- 
ciousness  the  hospitality  Mr.  Baker  would  offer 
him  at  the  corner  cupboard.  Mary  watched  such 
scenes  with  the  gravest  interest  and  remembered 
them  vividly  in  after  years,  not  without  a  peculiar 
relish  of  humor.  Her  father  was  a  great  churchman 
and  often  visited  "backsliders"  with  this  same 
"Priest"  Burnham,  to  labor  with  them  in  matters 


24  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

of  conscience,  and  presently  she  herself  became  the 
object  of  such  solicitation. 

Among  the  visitors  that  came  to  their  home  was 
Governor  Benjamin  Pierce.  He  had  served  through 
the  Revolutionary  War  and  the  War  of  1812  and 
attained  the  rank  of  Major- General.  He  was  twice 
governor  of  New  Hampshire.  Mark  Baker  was 
chaplain  of  the  state  militia,  and  a  figure  of  some 
consequence  in  politics.  Their  politics  were  con- 
genial, both  being  ardent  Democrats  and  advocates 
of  states  rights.  The  old  general  sometimes  brought 
with  him  on  his  drives  to  Bow  his  granddaughter, 
Fanny  McNeil,  who  was  related  to  the  Bakers 
through  her  father,  and  while  Mark  Baker  and  the 
governor  talked  politics,  the  women  discussed  more 
congenial  topics. 

Mary  liked  best  to  listen  to  the  weightier  con- 
versation, especially  when  it  touched  the  welfare  of 
some  one  dear  to  her  heart.  Once  she  heard  the 
governor  laughing  merrily  with  her  father  over  the 
way  Mark  Baker  had  got  the  best  of  his  son,  Frank- 
lin, in  a  lawsuit  involving  the  towns  of  Loudon  and 
Bow  over  a  question  of  pauperism. 

"You  are  not  a  lawyer,  and  yet  my  son  says 
you  beat  him  with  your  arguments,"  said  the 
governor. 

"He  bore  his  defeat  in  good  spirit  and  offered  me 
his  congratulations,"  replied  her  father.  "He  is  a 
magnetic  young  man  destined  for  great  things.  It  is 
gratifying  in  these  days  of  general  bad  manners  to 
have  an  opponent  of  such  courtesy  and  good-will. 
He  swept  me  a  bow  like  a  soldier  saluting  his  com- 


EDUCATION  AND  DEVELOPMENT  25 

mander-in-chief  —  no  less ;  and  then  shook  hands 
with  me  Uke  a  kinsman." 

*'And  kinsmen  we  are  in  some  sort,  they  tell  me. 
See  here,  Mr.  Baker,  send  your  son  Albert  to  see  us 
when  he  comes  home  again.  Get  him  into  politics 
right !  he  can't  understand  these  matters  too  young, 
and  Franklin  is  a  zealous  Democrat,  you  know." 

Somewhat  later  Albert  made  a  visit  to  the  Pierces', 
and  he,  the  undergraduate,  formed  a  sincere  and 
devoted  attachment  for  the  future  president.  Some- 
thing about  the  young  man  attracted  Franklin 
Pierce  to  him.  He  reminded  him,  no  doubt,  of  that 
other  devoted  friend,  Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  his 
college  mate  at  Bowdoin.  Perhaps  it  was  young 
Baker's  passion  for  abstract  metaphysics. 

"When  you've  finished  college,  come  to  me," 
Franklin  Pierce  said  in  parting,  "and  I'll  start  you 
reading  law." 

The  next  time  Mark  Baker  was  in  Concord,  the 
governor  entertained  him  at  dinner.  Governor 
Pierce,  the  politician,  was  pleased  at  the  prospect  of 
a  close  alliance  with  an  old  family  of  such  wide  rami- 
fications as  the  Bakers  of  Bow  and  Pembroke  with 
their  numerous  voters,  and  in  signification  of  his 
satisfaction  offered  Mr.  Baker  a  gold-headed  walk- 
ing-stick as  he  was  leaving.  Mr.  Baker  declined  it, 
saying  he  never  used  a  cane.  His  pride  was  as  un- 
bending as  his  rugged  figure,  which  he  carried  erect 
to  his  grave. 

The  love  between  Albert  Baker  and  his  youngest 
sister  was  most  tender,  and  she  beheld  these  ar- 
rangements for  his  future  with  an  interest  beyond 


26  THE  LIFE  OF  INIARY  BAKER  EDDY 

her  years.  She  had  seen  him  leave  for  college  with  a 
pang  of  desolation,  and  now  with  what  impatience 
she  watched  with  face  pressed  against  the  pane  for 
his  first  return  home ! 

When  he  finally  came  he  caught  her  up,  the  frail 
little  girl  of  nine,  and  set  her  once  more  on  his  shoul- 
der to  queen  it  through  the  house. 

"Mother,"  he  said,  "Mary  is  as  beautiful  as  an 
angel." 

"Well,  my  son,"  said  the  good  mother;  "she  is 
as  gentle  and  sweet-tempered  as  one." 

"Now,  little  sister,  tell  me  about  the  books,"  was 
his  first  question,  when  he  had  kissed  her  cheeks  and 
stood  her  before  him  at  the  old  secretary.  "Have 
they  let  you  have  the  books  again  .5^" 

Vibrating  with  the  bliss  of  having  again  with  her 
this  beloved  brother,  she  leaned  upon  his  breast  and 
looked  up  into  his  face  with  eyes  like  dewy  violets. 
She  clasped  and  unclasped  her  hands  around  his 
neck  and  nestled  to  his  heart.  The  excess  of  her 
emotional  nature  disquieted  him  vaguely.  Here 
was  no  farm  girl's  prosaic  temperament. 

"Now  tell  your  brother,"  said  he,  holding  her 
gently,  for  he  felt  again  what  he  had  forgotten,  how 
fragile  and  gentle  she  was,  how  like  a  flower  that 
might  be  crushed.  It  was  a  moment  of  rare  inti- 
macy, such  as  seldom  occurs  between  members  of  the 
same  family,  except  with  highly  organized  natures. 
It  was  moreover  a  moment  which  yielded  important 
results  in  her  after  life. 

Standing  before  him,  she  explained  all  her  heart 
with  shy  candor;  how  it  was  that  she  loved  him  so 


EDUCATION  AND   DEVELOPMENT  27 

because  he  was  brave  and  honorable  and  a  scholar ; 
how  she  recognized  his  bravery  because  he  had  per- 
sisted in  his  determination  to  go  to  college ;  and  his 
honor,  because  he  had  never  cried  out  against  the 
hardship  of  labor  that  went  hand  in  hand  with  his 
studies. 

"And  I  want  very  much  to  be  a  scholar,  too," 
she  said. 

*'A  scholar,  and  why,  little  sister.?" 

"Because  when  I  grow  up  I  shall  write  a  book; 
and  I  must  be  wise  to  do  it.  I  must  be  as  great  a 
scholar  as  you  or  Mr.  Franklin  Pierce.  Already 
I  have  read  Young's  'Night  Thoughts,'  and  I 
understand  it." 

"Well,  sister,"  said  Albert  Baker  seriously,  "we 
will  have  this  for  a  secret  and  I  will  teach  you.  You 
are  still  a  very  little  girl,  you  know;  but  study  your 
grammar  and  my  Latin  grammar.  Next  summer 
when  I'm  home  I  will  teach  you  to  read  Latin. 
Does  that  make  you  happy  ?  " 

Ah,  the  deep  embrace  when  Mary  flung  herself 
into  her  brother's  arms !  Albert  Baker  was  true  to 
his  word.  He  taught  his  sister  during  all  his  vaca- 
tions. Mrs.  Eddy  has  said  that  at  ten  she  was  as 
familiar  with  Lindley  Murray  as  with  the  West- 
minster Catechism  which  she  had  studied  with  her 
sisters  every  Sunday  since  her  babyhood.  During 
the  four  years  of  her  brother's  undergraduate  work 
she  read  with  him  moral  science,  natural  philosophy, '^ 
and  mastered  the  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew  gram- 
mars. He  was  an  able  teacher  and  she  an  apt  pupil. 
A  friend  wrote  of  him  after  his  death  that  he  was 


28  THE   LIFE   OF   MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

"fond  of  investigating  abstruse  metaphysical  prin- 
ciples and  schooled  himself  by  intense  and  incessant 
study."  Mary  corresponded  with  her  brother  and 
also  with  her  cousin  who  was  at  college  and  her  fame 
gradually  spread  as  a  young  prodig}'  of  learning 
whose  writing  fell  naturally  into  poetr>'  and  whose 
thought  was  forever  brooding  on  spiritual  matters. 

In  spite  of  her  intelligence,  Mary  Baker's  spiritual 
experiences  continued  to  be  grave  and  unusual,  as 
had  been  her  "Voices."  She  was  what  her  family 
thought  morbidly  devout,  reading  her  Bible  with 
absorbed  interest,  making  its  characters  the  familiar 
friends  of  her  mind.  \Mien  she  discovered  that 
Daniel  prayed  seven  times  daily,  she  formed  the 
habit  of  doing  so  likewise.  A  curious  fact  is  that  she 
kept  a  record  of  these  prayers  in  order  to  examine 
herself  from  time  to  time  to  learn  if  she  had  im- 
proved in  grace.  This  was  kept  up  through  a  num- 
ber of  years  and  was  doubtless  her  first  effort  at 
composition.  Her  phrases  were  formed  on  the  style 
of  the  psalmist  and  the  prophets.  So,  when  with  his 
cousin,  Albert  commented  on  the  unusual  diction  of 
Mary's  letters,  he  declared  he  could  only  account 
for  it  by  the  habit  she  had  of  constantly  reading  her 
Bible  and  writing  and  rewriting  prayers  in  emula- 
tion of  David. 

Her  religious  experience  reached  a  grave  crisis 
when  she  was  twelve  years  of  age,  though  she  did 
not  unite  with  the  church  until  five  years  later  at 
Sanbornton  Bridge.  While  still  in  Bow,  writincr  and 
studying,  her  father's  relentless  theology  was  alarmed 
at  her  frequent  expression  of  confidence  in  God's 


EDUCATION  AND   DEVELOPMENT  29 

love.  He  held  to  a  hard  and  bitter  doctrine  of  pre- 
destination and  believed  that  a  horrible  decree  of 
endless  punishment  awaited  sinners  on  a  final 
judgment  day. 

Whether  it  was  logic  and  moral  science  taught 
her  by  her  brother,  or  the  trusting  love  instilled  by 
her  mother  who  had  guided  her  to  yield  herself  to 
the  voice  of  God  within  her,  Mary  resisted  her 
father  on  the  matter  of  "unconditional  election." 
Beautiful  in  her  serenity  and  immovable  in  her 
faith,  the  daughter  sat  before  the  stern  father  of  the 
iron  will.  His  sires  had  signed  a  covenant  in  blood 
and  would  he  not  wrestle  w4th  this  child  who  dared 
the  wrath  of  God  ? 

And  well  he  did  wrestle  and  the  home  was  filled 
with  his  torrents  of  emotion.  But  though  Mary 
might  have  quoted  to  him  her  own  baby  speech,  she 
was  too  respectful  and  his  "vociferations"  went 
unrebuked.  It  is  a  remarkable  thing  to  note,  the 
conscience  of  a  child  in  defense  of  its  faith.  Can 
any  one  suppose  it  an  easy  thing  to  resist  a  father  so 
convicted  with  belief  in  dogma,  a  father,  too,  whom 
all  their  world  honored  and  heeded }  We  may  be 
sure  it  was  not  easy ;  that,  indeed,  to  do  so  tortured 
this  little  child's  heart.  But  Mark  Baker  was  act- 
ing; according;  to  his  conscience,  and  the  child  knew 

(Do  ' 

it  and  respected  him.  She  did  not  view  this  strug- 
gle of  consciences  as  a  quarrel,  and  has  repudiated 
all  her  life  the  idea  that  she  ever  quarreled  with  her 
father. 

The  notion  went  abroad,  however,  that  Mark 
Baker  and  his  daughter  Mary  were  at  variance  over 


30  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

relio-ion.  The  silly  gossip  of  their  world  reported 
that  she  would  not  study  her  catechism.  They  said 
that  Mary  had  a  high  temper  for  all  her  learning, 
she  of  whom  her  mother  had  said,  "When  do  you 
ever  see  Mary  angry?"  They  even  said  that  Mr. 
Baker  had  reported  in  his  anguish  to  his  clergyman, 
"If  Mary  Magdalene  had  seven  devils,  our  Mary 
has  ten."  The  struggle,  it  may  be  seen,  was  no 
casual  argument,  but  a  deep  wrestle  of  souls.  At 
last  the  child  succumbed  to  an  illness  and  the  family 
doctor  was  summoned.  When  Mark  Baker  drove 
to  fetch  him  his  religious  intemperance  must  have 
given  way  to  paternal  affection  and  fear.  He  is  said 
to  have  stood  up  in  his  wagon  and  lashed  his  horse, 
crying  out  to  a  neighbor  who  accosted  him  that 
Mary  was  dying. 

The  physician  declared  Mary  stricken  with  fever. 
He  left  medicines,  recommending  her  to  her 
mother's  most  watchful  care  and  admonishing  her 
father  to  desist  from  discussions.  Mrs.  Eddy  says 
of  what  followed : 

My  mother,  as  she  bathed  my  burning  temples, 
bade  me  lean  on  God's  love,  which  would  give  me 
rest  if  I  went  to  Him  in  prayer,  as  I  was  wont  to  do, 
seeking  His  guidance.  I  prayed;  and  a  soft  glow 
of  ineffable  joy  came  over  me.  The  fever  was  gone 
and  I  rose  and  dressed  myself  in  a  normal  condition 
of  health.  Mother  saw  this  and  was  glad.  The 
physician  marveled;  and  the  "horrible  decree"  of 
Predestination  —  as  John  Calvin  rightly  called  his 
own  tenet  —  forever  lost  its  power  over  me.  * 

*  "Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  22. 


EDUCATION  AND  DEVELOPMENT  31 

It  is  true  that  Maiy  Baker  made  a  religious  pro- 
fession at  this  time.  She  was  examined  at  the  age  of 
twelve  by  the  pastor  who  eagerly  put  to  her  the 
usual  "doleful  questions,"  declaring  that  he  must 
be  assured  that  she  had  been  truly  regenerated. 
With  the  eyes  of  the  church  members  upon  her  and 
her  own  father's  haggard  face  visible  from  his  place 
in  their  family  pew,  she  answered  without  a  tremor : 

"I  can  only  say  in  the  words  of  the  psalmist, 
'Search  me,  O  God,  and  know  my  heart;  try  me, 
and  know  my  thoughts;  and  see  if  there  be  any 
wicked  way  in  me,  and  lead  me  in  the  way  ever- 
lasting.'" 

Her  childish,  but  resolute  figure,  and  the  grave 
words  so  earnestly  spoken,  brought  about  a  reaction 
in  her  favor  and  the  oldest  church  members  wept. 
Her  pastor  relented  toward  her  and  the  ordeal  was 
over.  However,  it  was  not  until  the  age  of  seven- 
teen that  she  united  with  the  Congregational 
church. 

The  circumstances  of  her  struggle  with  her  father 
made  a  profound  impression  on  her  and  the  watch- 
ful love  of  her  mother  saw  fit  to  send  her  on  a  visit 
to  a  friend  in  the  suburbs  of  Boston  under  the  care 
of  her  brother  Samuel.  These  friends  received  her 
with  kindness  and  sought  to  draw  her  thoughts 
away  from  serious  questions  with  bright  entertain- 
ment and  pleasant  diversion.  That  they  did  not 
entirely  succeed  is  shown  in  some  of  her  verses 
written  at  this  time  in  which,  while  she  shows  a  rap- 
turous love  of  nature,  she  declares  that  all  this  is  the 
poet's    world-wish    and    only    a   shadow   hastening 


32  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

away.  She  asserts,  however,  that  hope  Ufts  the 
thought  to  "soar  above  matter  and  fasten  on  God," 
which  at  this  very  early  age  presaged  her  future 
rehgious  revelation  in  no  uncertain  outline. 

The  entrance  of  Albert  Baker  into  Franklin 
Pierce's  law  office  at  Hillsborough;  his  absorption 
into  the  politics  of  that  region  which  he  represented 
in  the  New  Hampshire  legislature  for  two  succes- 
sive terms;  the  establishment  of  Samuel  Baker  in 
business  in  Boston ;  and  the  desire  of  George  Baker 
to  enter  the  cloth  mills  of  Sanbornton  Bridge  are 
various  reasons  which  caused  Mark  Baker  to  remove 
from  Bow  to  the  mill  town  eighteen  miles  north  of 
Concord.  He  relinquished  his  share  of  the  title  in 
the  Bow  property  to  his  brothers'  children  and 
bought  a  farm  about  a  mile  from  Tilton. 

The  Baker  home  life  now  became  more  social 
and  less  patriarchal.  Mary  was  fifteen,  her  sisters, 
Martha  and  Abigail,  eighteen  and  twenty.  All  three 
sisters  were  notable  for  their  beauty  and  good 
breeding.  The  mother's  agreeable  temperament, 
together  with  her  hospitable  nature  no  less  than 
Mr.  Baker's  great  interest  in  public  affairs,  drew 
many  guests  to  this  house  in  which  the  family  lived 
for  seven  years.  Mr.  Baker  became  prominent  in 
the  church  with  which  he  and  his  wife  very  soon 
united.  He  conducted  the  "third  meeting"  and 
George  Baker  led  the  village  choir.  George  was  now 
established  in  Alexander  Tilton's  mill  and  rose 
rapidly  to  become  a  mill  agent  and  later  a  partner 
of  the  owner,  who  before  that  time  had  married  his 
sister  Abigail. 


THK    COXGUEGATIONAI.    CHURCH    AT    TII.TOX,    NKW    HAMPSHIRK 

Mrs.  Eddy  was  a  nieiiiber  of  this  church  for  many  years  and  taught  a  class 
in  the  Sunday-school 


EDUCATION  AND  DEVELOPMENT       33 

A  frequent  guest  of  the  family  was  Professor  Dyer 
H.  Sanborn,  who  kept  a  private  school  to  which  the 
children  of  the  wealthier  families  were  sent  to  finish 
their  studies.  Boys  were  prepared  by  him  for  col- 
lege and  girls  were  given  a  certificate  of  graduation 
with  academic  honors.  Mary  Baker  became  his 
pupil  and  graduated  from  this  school.  Professor 
Sanborn  was  the  author  of  a  grammar  and  a  man  of 
literary  tastes.  He  trained  Mary  particularly  in 
rhetoric  and  corrected  the  faults  which  private  study 
had  engendered. 

The  Rev.  Enoch  Corser,  pastor  of  the  Tilton 
church  for  all  the  period  of  their  residence  at  the 
farm,  was  also  a  frequent  and  honored  guest  of  the 
Bakers.  He  was  a  man  of  liberal  culture  as  may  be 
imagined  from  the  fact  that  he  privately  tutored  his 
son  Bartlett,  sending  him  to  college  prepared  to  elim- 
inate the  first  two  years  of  Greek,  Latin,  and  mathe- 
matics. This  was  Mary  Baker's  pastor  who  first 
received  her  into  communion.  His  son  has  declared 
his  father's  disposition  toward  her  to  be  one  of  high- 
est esteem,  deep  admiration,  and  warm  interest. 
This  pastor  regarded  Mary  as  his  special  pupil  and 
the  brightest  he  ever  had. 

An  intellectual  comradeship  grew  up  between  Mary 
and  her  pastor  who,  as  his  son  declares,  preferred 
to  talk  with  her  to  any  one  of  his  acquaintance. 
They  discussed  subjects  too  deep  to  be  attractive 
to  other  members  of  the  family,  which  the  family 
freely  and  good-humoredly  admitted.  Walking  up 
and  down  in  the  garden,  this  fine,  old-school  clergy- 
man and  the  young  poetess,  as  she  was  coming  to  be 

'4 


34  THE   LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

called,  threshed  out  the  old  philosophic  speculations 
without  rancor  or  irritation. 

He  was  a  fine-looking  old  Calvinist,  with  leonine 
head  covered  with  a  mane  of  silver,  and  shaggy 
brows  beneath  which  rolled  eyes  of  eloquence  and 
compassion.  His  mouth  was  wide  but  firm,  sug- 
gesting both  humor  and  melancholy.  His  shoulders 
had  the  scholar's  droop.  One  can  picture  them  of  a 
fine  summer  evening,  the  slender  girl  and  the  old 
scholar,  on  their  usual  promenade  in  the  garden. 
She  must  have  declared  to  him  something  from  her 
philosophy,  —  perhaps  that  one  drop  of  divine  love 
melted  his  eternal  hells.  As  she  looked  up  at  her 
pastor,  her  great  blue  eyes  poured  sunshine  upon 
him  and  she  smiled  with  such  radiance  that  he  was 
struck  dumb  in  the  midst  of  his  defense  of  Hades. 
They  would  be  by  the  willows  which  still  remain, 
all  that  is  left  of  the  old  place,  and  below  them 
rolled  the  valley  with  the  village  nestling  there  in  the 
summer  twilight. 

"Mary,  your  poetry  goes  beyond  my  theology," 
cried  her  pastor.;   "why  should  I  preach  to  you  !" 

As  they  turned  they  encountered  his  son  Bartlett 
and  Abigail ;  for  Bartlett  was  a  suitor  for  Abigail's 
hand  and  she  once  pinned  a  rose  on  his  coat  in  this 
garden.  It  is  possible  that  both  men  were  uplifted 
as  they  walked  down  the  hill  from  the  Baker  home, 
and  that  it  was  then  the  father,  halting  his  son  with 
a  hand  on  his  shoulder,  declared  to  him  what  he  at 
some  time  certainly  said:  "Bright,  good,  and  pure, 
aye  brilliant !  I  never  before  had  a  pupil  with  such 
depth  and  independence  of  thought.    She  has  some 


EDUCATION  AND   DEVELOPMENT  35 

great  future,  mark  that.    She  is  an  intellectual  and 
spiritual  genius." 

The  young  man  may  not  have  marked  it  then,  ab- 
sorbed in  his  thoughts  of  the  other  sister.  But  he 
lived  to  remember  it  and  to  pay  tribute  to  that  genius 
by  recalling  his  father's  words.  He  never  married 
or  entered  a  profession.  His  father  left  him  well  off 
in  lands  and  money,  and  with  his  two  maiden  sisters 
he  lived  for  years  at  Boscawen,  a  village  between 
Tilton  and  Concord  made  famous  by  Daniel  Web- 
ster. He  was  a  country  gentleman  of  literary 
tastes  and  hospitable  habits.  Abigail,  after  re- 
jecting him,  married  Alexander  Tilton,  a  wealthy 
mill  owner,  and  became  the  great  lady  of  the  town. 
Martha,  after  teaching  for  a  time  in  the  academy, 
married  a  state  warden. 

While  Mary  was  attending  the  academy  an  inci-''' 
dent  occurred  which  is  still  related  by  old  residents 
of  Tilton.  A  lunatic,  escaped  from  the  asylum  at 
Concord,  invaded  the  school  yard,  brandishing  a 
club  and  terrifying  the  children  who  ran  shrieking 
into  the  house.  Mary  Baker  advanced  toward  him, 
and  the  children,  peering  through  the  windows,  saw 
him  wield  the  club  above  her  head.  Their  blood 
tingled  with  horror  for  they  expected  her  to  be 
struck  down  before  their  eyes.  Not  so.  She  walked 
straight  up  to  the  man  and  took  his  disengaged 
hand.  The  club  descended  harmlessly  to  his  side. 
At  her  request  he  walked  with  her  to  the  gate  and 
so,  docilely,  away.  On  the  following  Sunday  he 
reappeared  and  quietly  entered  the  church.  He 
walked  to  the  Baker  pew  and  stood  beside  Mary 


36  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

during  the  hymn  singing.     Afterwards  he  allowed 
himself  to  be  taken  in  charge  without  resistance. 

Mary  Baker  must  have  been  a  gladsome  sight  in 
that  grim  old  meeting-house.  She  has  been  described 
as  slender  and  graceful,  with  a  shower  of  chestnut 
curls,  delicate,  refined  features,  and  great  blue  eyes 
that  on  occasion  of  unwonted  interest  became  al- 
most black.  She  wore  a  fashionable  mantle  over  her 
silk  gown  and  the  bonnet  of  the  period  which  came 
around  her  face,  relieved  with  a  delicate  ruching  of 
white.  Her  curls  escaped  from  the  bonnet  and 
shaded  cheeks  which  were  so  glowing  they  rivaled 
the  rose.  She  taught  the  infants'  class  in  the  Sun- 
day-school and  an  elderly  lady  in  Boston  who  was 
in  that  class  relates : 

"She  always  wore  clothes  we  admired.  We  liked 
her  gloves  and  fine  cambric  handkerchief.  She  was, 
as  I  have  come  to  understand,  exquisite,  and  we 
loved  her  particularly  for  her  daintiness,  her  high- 
bred mianners,  her  way  of  smiling  at  us,  and  her 
sweet  musical  voice."  Indeed,  in  those  days  her 
name  might  have  been  sung  for  that  of  Annie  Laurie 
in  the  old  ballad,  so  beautifully  did  her  girlhood 
culminate. 

Within  two  years  two  events  transpired  which 
broke  forever  the  old  home  circle,  and  changed  Mary 
from  girlhood  to  womanhood.  In  1841  Albert 
Baker  was  nominated  for  Congress  in  a  district 
where  nomination  by  his  party  insured  election. 
Before  that  came  to  pass  he  died  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
one.  His  death  was  regarded  as  a  calamity  by  his 
party,  and  his  family  felt  it  as  a  blow  to  their  great- 


EDUCATION  AND  DEVELOPMENT  37 

est  ambition.  Of  Mary's  grief  it  is  sufficient  to  say 
that  this  brother  was,  after  her  mother,  the  dearest 
of  her  kindred.  She  had  developed  as  a  flower  in 
his  heart.  It  was  well  for  her  that  another  love  came 
to  break  a  too  long-continued  sorrow. 

George  Washington  Glover,  formerly  of  Concord, 
had  been  associated  with  Samuel  Baker  in  Boston 
and  with  him  learned  the  first  step  in  his  profession, 
that  of  a  contractor  and  builder.  He  was  now  es- 
tablished at  Charleston,  South  Carolina.  He  visited 
Tilton  with  Samuel  Baker  and  fell  deeply  in  love 
with  the  young  sister.  He  was  an  impetuous  wooer 
and  won  Mary  Baker's  heart. 


CHAPTER    IV 

CHANGE   AND   BEREAVEMENT 

MARY  BAKER  and  George  Washington  Glover 
were  married  two  weeks  before  the  Christmas 
of  1843  at  the  farmhouse  near  Tilton  by  her  be- 
loved pastor,  Dr.  Corser.  There  was  a  wedding 
party  and  all  the  notables  of  the  neighborhood  and 
guests  from  Concord  and  even  Boston  attended. 
Roaring  fires  greeted  the  arriving  sleighing  parties 
and  there  were  feasting  and  merriment.  Mark 
Baker  saw  all  his  children  around  him  at  this 
wedding,  save  the  lamented  iVlbert,  and  felt  that  all 
were  well  launched  in  life.  Samuel  was  there  from 
Boston,  with  his  wife,  a  missionary  in  her  teens  to  the 
Indians.  Abigail,  who  had  been  married  six  years, 
was  present  with  her  husband,  Alexander  Tilton. 
Martha  with  her  husband,  Luther  Pillsbury  of  Con- 
cord, and  George  Baker,  still  unmarried,  were  there. 
Surrounded  by  five  children,  four  of  whom  w^ere 
well  married,  Mark  Baker  was  justified  in  believing 
that  his  name  and  blood  would  go  down  to  posterity 
enriched,  strengthened,  honored.  There  was  to  be, 
however,  no  permanent  issue,  save  through  the 
medium  of  that  frailest  and  youngest,  the  flower-like 
girl,  who,  in  her  bridal  garments,  clung  to  his  arm 
as  they  walked  down  the  stairs  of  the  old-fashioned 
house.     She  alone,  holding  her  father  back  at  the 


CHANGE  AND   BEREAVEMENT  39 

parlor  door  for  one  parting  embrace  and  long  look  in 
his  eyes,  was  to  insure  him  a  third  and  a  fourth 
generation  and  to  make  his  name  known  throughout 
the  world. 

Her  father  might  well  have  looked  at  her  with 
paternal  pride  on  her  wedding  day.  He  had  dowered 
her  with  beauty,  educated  her  with  care,  gathered 
her  safely  into  the  church,  clothed  her  delicately  and 
without  parsimony.  As  finely  and  nobly  bred  was 
she  as  any  bride  who  ever  left  her  father's  home  in 
all  New  England.  Yet  could  this  father  have 
looked  into  the  future  he  would  have  foreseen  that 
his  daughter  Mary  would  yet  reject  his  religious 
dogmas,  his  political  ideas,  his  wealth  and  family 
pride^,  —  that  she  would  one  day  depart  from  them 
all  with  a  more  significant  departure  than  this  of 
going  forth  as  a  bride. 

The  young  husband  and  wife  left  immediately  for 
the  South.  George  Glover  had  a  promising  business 
in  Charleston,  South  Carolina.  During  the  four 
years  he  lived  there,  from  1839  to  1844,  he  made 
thirteen  conveyances  of  property  and  two  were 
made  to  him.  These  acts  involved  several  thousand 
dollars,  as  the  registry  of  deeds  of  that  city  discloses. 
He  owned  a  few  slaves  and  employed  a  number  of 
men  in  his  building  ventures.  One  of  the  first 
things  Mrs.  Glover  endeavored  to  influence  her 
young  husband  to  do  was  to  free  his  slaves. 

With  change  of  environment  the  whole  question 
of  slavery  became  a  real  and  terrible  one  to  her,  and 
no  longer  merely  a  political  issue  as  it  was  con- 
sidered by  the  Bakers,  the  Tiltons,  the  Pierces,  in 


40  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

New  Hampshire.  A  young  colored  woman  who 
worked  in  a  boarding-house  of  the  city  (as  was  re- 
lated by  a  Boston  woman  sojourning  there)  had 
stolen  a  shawl,  and  though  she  gave  it  up,  she 
was  taken  to  the  sugar  house  and  whipped.  Her 
screams  were  audible  on  the  road.  George  Glover 
could  not  drive  out  with  his  wife  on  a  pleasant 
evening  through  the  magnolia-lined  avenues  of  the 
"Queen  City  of  the  South"  and  be  certain  that  she 
would  not  see  or  hear  some  such  evidence  of  the 
inhuman  side  of  slavery.  It  was  thus  that  the  issue 
was  made  real  to  her. 

The  question  of  freeing  his  slaves  was  frequently 
debated  between  them,  Mr.  Glover  explaining  to  his 
wife  that  it  had  been  made  illegal  to  do  so  in  South 
Carolina  by  a  statute  passed  in  1820,  and  only  by 
special  act  of  the  legislature  could  slaves  be  made 
absolutely  free.  Her  answer  to  this  was  that  she 
had  learned  of  some  instances  where  masters  allowed 
their  slaves  to  depart  of  their  own  free  will.  Then 
her  husband  argued  to  her  that  it  would  be  a  loss 
of  property  for .  him  to  free  his  slaves  as  he  had 
accepted  them  in  payment  of  debts,  and  very  likely 
would  have  to  do  so  again.  But  Mrs.  Glover  was 
insistent  that  to  own  a  human  being  was  to  live  in  a 
state  of  sin.  Glover  was  young,  prosperous,  had 
large  contracts  ahead  of  him,  and  so  thought 
seriously  of  yielding  to  her  persuasions.  Events 
soon  took  the  necessity  of  decision  out  of  his  hands 
and  left  it  to  his  wife,  who  decided  with  charac- 
teristic moral  acumen. 

It  was  June  of  the  summer  following  their  mar- 


CHANGE  AND  BEREAVEMENT  41 

riage.  Mr.  Glover  had  a  contract  for  supplying 
building  material  for  a  cathedral  to  be  erected  in 
Haiti  and  on  this  business  went  to  Wilmington, 
North  Carolina.  Because  of  her  unique  position  in 
her  new  social  surroundings,  not  only  as  an  advo- 
cate of  abolition  in  conversation,  but  one  who  had 
dared  to  write  on  the  subject  for  the  local  papers, 
he  took  his  young  wife  with  him.  He  feared,  indeed, 
to  leave  her  behind,  for  she  was  in  delicate  health 
and  impressionable  to  the  excitement  of  high 
argument. 

In  Wilmington  they  found  yellow  fever  raging  and 
the  city  in  a  panic.  Mr.  Glover  endeavored  to 
forward  his  business  for  a  speedy  departure ;  but  he 
was  himself  suddenly  stricken  with  the  fever  and 
survived  but  nine  days.  During  his  illness  his 
young  wife  was  excluded  by  his  brother  Masons 
from  the  perilous  task  of  nursing  him.  Mr.  Glover 
was  a  member  of  Saint  Andrew's  Lodge,  No.  10,  and 
of  Union  Chapter,  No.  3,  of  Royal  Arch  Masons,  and 
his  need  in  this  hour  brought  a  quick  response  from 
members  of  the  order.  In  his  delirium  he  con- 
stantly talked  of  his  wife,  of  his  hopes  through  her, 
and  of  his  business  plans  which  he  now  saw  blasted. 
When  he  knew  he  was  dying,  he  begged  his  brother 
Masons  to  see  his  wife  safe  to  her  father's  home  in 
the  North.    His  request  was  carried  out  faithfully. 

George  Glover  was  interred  with  Masonic  rites  in 
the  Episcopal  cemetery  of  Wilmington.  His  business 
associates  and  members  of  the  lodge  followed  his 
body  to  the  grave  and  then  strove  to  do  all  that  was 
possible   for  his   widow's   cpmfort.     For  a  month 


42  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Mrs.  Glover  was  entertained  in  the  home  of  these 
cordial  Southerners,  made  more  than  friends  by  the 
calamity  of  the  hour.  They  did  all  that  kinsmen 
could  have  done.  They  converted  his  business 
interests  into  as  large  a  sum  of  money  as  possible 
and  an  escort  was  selected  to  accompany  her  to  her 
home.  She  had  already  communicated  with  her 
family,  and  her  brother  George  met  them  in  New 
York  City. 

Mrs.  Glover  had  brought  with  her  a  considerable 
sum  of  money,  but  her  husband's  business,  as  may 
be  readily  understood  from  the  nature  of  it,  fell  to 
pieces  at  his  death.  Now  it  was  that  she  permitted 
his  slaves  to  go  free,  unwilling  to  accept  for  herself 
the  price  of  a  human  life.  No  record  exists  of  this 
transaction  because  of  the  statutes  on  emancipation, 
which  existed  in  South  Carolina  until  the  proclama- 
tion of  President  Lincoln.  Mr.  Baker,  though  a 
Democrat,  and  opposed  to  the  policies  of  the  aboli- 
tionists, was  no  lover  of  slavery  and  he  upheld  his 
daughter  in  this  sacrifice  of  property. 

Mrs.  Glover  was  received  with  tenderness  by  her 
parents  and  given  her  girlhood  room  again,  a 
spacious  and  comfortable  chamber  in  which  she  had 
so  lately  donned  her  wedding  veil.  It  was  August, 
and  she  had  escaped  from  the  tropic  heat  of  the 
South  to  her  native  mountain  air.  She  breathed 
deep  drafts  at  her  window,  looking  out  over  the 
familiar  valley.  But  there  was  in  her  eyes  a  look  of 
loneliness,  a  look  of  fear,  and  they  were  often  wide 
and  startled,  as  those  of  one  who  sees  a  vision.^ 

In  September  she  gave  birth  to  a  son  whom  she 


CHANGE  AND  BEREAVEMENT  43 

named  after  his  father.  Mrs.  Glover's  life  for  a  time 
was  despaired  of.  She  was  far  too  ill  to  nurse  her 
child  and  Mark  Baker  carried  the  infant  to  the 
home  of  Amos  Morrison,  a  locomotive  builder, 
whose  wife  had  given  birth  to  twins  a  few  days 
before  George  Glover  was  born.  Of  these  one  had 
died,  leaving  the  mother  with  a  little  girl,  Asenath. 
This  mother  took  Mary's  child  to  her  breast  with 
her  own  and  both  thrived. 

Mahala  Sanborn,  daughter  of  a  blacksmith,  was 
engaged  to  nurse  Mrs.  Glover,  but  her  father  would 
sit  for  long  hours  by  his  daughter's  bed,  often  taking 
her  in  his  arms  and  rocking  her  gently  like  a  child. 
The  roads  were  strewn  with  tan-bark  and  straw, 
and  the  house  was  hushed  as  if  death  had  invaded 
it.  When  the  long  struggle  for  life  ended  in  a  feeble 
victory  and  the  babe  was  brought  home  again,  the 
young  mother  was  very  happy.  Her  widowed 
heart  found  comfort  in  maternal  expression.  He 
was  a  vigorous,  robust  infant,  and  to  her  had  the 
eyes  and  smile  of  his  father.  But  it  seemed  she  was 
too  tender  and  too  devoted,  too  weak  physically  to 
exercise  a  mother's  care,  and  when  she  had  over- 
taxed herself  her  parents  would  send  little  George 
home  with  Mahala  Sanborn,  or  it  may  be  they 
merely  permitted  the  spinster  nurse  to  take  him, 
indulging  her  fondness.  This  was  not  well,  as  later 
events  proved. 

A  significant  fact  in  relation  to  the  child's  infancy 
is  found  in  the  birth  of  another  grandson  to  Mark 
Baker  a  few  months  later.  Abigail  Tilton's  first 
child  was  born  in  June  of  the  following  year  and  she 


44  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

named  it  Albert,  in  memory  of  the  lamented  brother. 
This  boy  was  very  handsome  as  was  also  a  daughter, 
Evelyn,  born  a  few  years  later.  Both  were  delicate, 
nervous  children,  while  George  Glover  was  quite  the 
reverse.  Sturdy,  hearty,  and  romping,  this  child  of 
Mary's  made  the  house  ring  with  his  demands. 
When  Abigail  was  there  with  her  baby,  to  the  smithy 
little  George  must  go  to  stay  with  Mahala,  and  to 
the  smithy  he  went  with  the  Tiltons'  coachman,  and 
there  his  spirits  were  not  constrained,  nor  was  his 
childish  nature  subdued  to  its  proper  walk  in  life. 
Thus  without  her  consent,  at  the  very  outset,  was  the 
mother's  influence  over  her  child  lost. 

George  Baker  was  still  living  at  home  and  Abigail 
came  out  to  the  farm  nearly  every  day.  George  and 
Mr.  Tilton  were  rapidly  making  a  fortune.  They 
had  been  manufacturing  cassimeres  and  tweeds  for 
eight  years  and  were  about  to  install  new  machinery, 
lease  a  new  mill,  and  otherwise  branch  out.  They 
were  persuading  their  father  to  build  a  handsome 
house  in  town,  near  to  the  Tiltons,  a  house  in 
Colonial  style,  of  very  comfortable  proportions.  He 
was  placing  his  savings  in  other  investments  than 
crops  through  his  son's  and  son-in-law's  advice, 
such  as  workmen's  houses  for  rents,  and  railroad 
stocks.  He  was  more  and  more  interested  in 
politics,  and  much  pleased  when  George  Baker  was 
made  a  colonel  on  the  Governor's  staff.  His  towns- 
men now  called  him  Squire,  in  recognition  of  his 
growing  wealth  and  influence. 

As  in  the  case  with  most  prosperous  persons,  the 
sense  of  executive  power  made  Abigail  and  George 


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CHANGE  AND  BEREAVEMENT  45 

wish  to  regulate  the  Hves  of  those  dear  to  them. 
They  were  a  bit  impatient  of  that  quiet  unfoldment 
of  destiny  which  was  now  dealing  with  their  sister 
Mary.  They  could  not  help  discussing  her  future. 
They  would  have  liked  some  definite  arrangement 
for  her,  especially  about  her  child. 

But  Mary  was  performing  a  sacred  duty  under 
their  unseeing  eyes.  Wliile  the  family  talked  of 
Tilton's  tweed,  the  new  Darling  mill,  workmen's 
cottages,  and  the  spur  of  railroad  that  would 
facilitate  the  shipping,  —  affairs  of  such  importance 
in  the  advancement  of  the  family  that  their  discus- 
sion came  into  the  family  circle,  —  Mary's  discern- 
ing eyes  were  watching  her  mother,  for  her  mother 
was  dying.  The  daughter  was  receiving  the  content 
of  the  mother's  stored-up  spiritual  treasury  and  was 
assisting  at  the  loosening  of  the  earth  fetters. 

Mrs.  Baker  had  enjoyed  the  new  home  in  town 
less  than  a  year.  She  did  not  bear  the  transplanting 
from  her  rural  life.  In  November,  1849,  she  died, 
and  her  death  caused  some  important  changes  in 
the  life  which  flowed  around  her  youngest  child. 
George  Baker  married  Martha  Drew  Rand  a  few 
months  before  his  mother's  death  and  went  to 
Baltimore  to  establish  himself  in  mills  in  that  city. 
About  a  year  later,  in  the  fall  of  1850,  Mark  Baker 
married  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Patterson  Duncan,  a  well- 
to-do  widow,  whose  brother  was  an  influential  man 
of  affairs  in  New  York  and  a  lieutenant-governor  of 
that  state.  These  events  occurred  five  years  after 
Mrs.  Glover  returned  to  her  father's  house  a  widow. 

Now  Mrs.   Glover  had  not  been  idle  all   these 


46  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

years.  Although  in  dehcate  health,  she  had  em- 
ployed her  pen  in  writing  and  at  the  request  of  the 
Hon.  Isaac  Hill  prepared  political  articles  for  the 
New  Hampshire  Patriot,  published  at  Concord. 
She  wrote  on  various  subjects,  but  especially  on 
slavery  from  her  experiences  in  the  South.  Her 
political  views  were  somewhat  different  from  her 
father's  and  their  views  were  to  diverge  more  and 
more  as  the  Civil  War  drew  nigh.  She  also  taught 
as  a  substitute  instructor  in  the  New  Hampshire 
Conference  Seminary,  in  which  her  old  teacher, 
Dyer  Sanborn,  was  now  a  professor.  The  Rev. 
Richard  S.  Rust,  principal  of  the  seminary,  was  so 
pleased  with  her  work  that  he  recommended  to  her 
that  she  open  an  infants'  school. 

Mrs.  Glover  did  this  as  an  educational  experi- 
ment. Her  school  was  an  early  attempt  to  introduce 
kindergarten  methods.  It  met  with  much  criticism, 
as  did  all  such  experiments,  fifty  years  ago  in  New 
England.  So  the  experiment  was  one  of  brief  duration. 
The  substitution  of  love  for  harshness  as  a  means 
of  discipline,  interest  for  compulsion  as  a  method  of 
imparting  knowledge,  was  held  up  to  derision  by  the 
hard-headed  element  of  the  community.  And  hard- 
headedness  had  a  very  great  advantage  in  New 
England  in  those  days.  Plard-headedness  was  the 
critic  of  things  in  general.  It  was  inclined  to  con- 
sider culture  in  a  woman  mincing  affectation,  very 
readily  agreeing  that  she  gave  herself  airs,  and  to  be 
"stuck  up"  in  a  New  England  village,  as  Margaret 
Deland  says,  was  next  to  being  a  heretic.  It  was 
not  very  easy,  with  such  biting  winds  of  criticism 


CHANGE  AND   BEREAVEMENT  47 

blowing,  for  an  idealist  to  keep  the  lilies  growing  in 
the  garden  of  the  heart.  It  is  not  difficult  to  perceive 
why  Mrs.  Glover  soon  closed  her  infants'  school. 

A  very  few  months  of  living  alone  with  her  father 
and  little  son  had  passed  when  the  talk  of  the 
family  circle  broached  the  idea  of  a  new  mistress  for 
Mr.  Baker's  house.  Those  who  knew  Mary  Baker 
best  at  this  time  declare  she  was  the  soul  of  gentle- 
ness, patience,  and  humility.  She  had  no  resistance 
to  offer  to  plans  which  were  likely  vitally  to  affect 
her.  Passive  and  gentle,  she  heard  the  family 
planning  and  arranging.  But  suddenly  she  caught 
the  trend  of  a  new  argument  and  then  she  did  offer 
resistance.  Mahala  Sanborn,  the  spinster  nurse, 
was  to  marry  Russell  Cheney  of  Groton,  some 
thirty  or  forty  miles  away  in  the  mountains.  And 
Mahala,  who  was  attached  to  little  George,  wanted 
to  take  the  child  with  her  to  her  new  home. 

"What,  take  my  little  son!"  the  mother  cried. 
"Abigail,  you  wouldn't  think  of  it !  Father,  do  you 
hear.'^  Why,  I  couldn't  see  him  for  months.  It 
would  break  my  heart.    Indeed,  indeed  it  would !  '* 

Nevertheless,  the  child  was  let  go.  One  has  no 
doubt  it  was  done  for  kindness,  as  the  stern  New 
Englander  of  those  days  understood  kindness;  no 
doubt  it  was  believed  to  be  necessary  and  right  and 
just.  The  new  mistress  of  the  home  was  coming. ,  y 
Mary  was  to  live  with  Abigail,  at  least  for  the  present. 
Now  little  George  was  five  and  Abigail's  child  was 
four.  No  doubt  it  was  necessary  to  make  due  pro- 
vision for  every  one's  peace  and  happiness,  for 
every  one's  but  the  weakest. 


48  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Mary  did  not  give  up  until  the  very  last  hour. 
She  knelt  by  his  bed  all  night  before  they  took  her 
child  and  prayed  for  a  vision  of  rehef,  for  a  way  to  be 
shown  that  she  might  not  have  to  yield  to  the  demand 
to  let  him  go.  But  in  the  end  she  helped  to  dress  him 
and  pack  his  little  things,  weeping  over  each  garment 
she  folded  away.  She  took  his  arms  from  around 
her  neck  and  smiled  through  her  tears  when  she  gave 
him  into  the  arms  of  Mahala  Sanborn. 

Four  bereavements  within  a  few  short  years  sep- 
arated Mary  Baker  from  brother,  mother,  husband, 
and  son.  What  wonder  that  at  this  period  she  sunk 
into  invalidism  and  that  in  later  years  when  revert- 
ing to  this  time  she  wrote: 

It  is  well  to  know  that  our  material,  mortal  his- 
tory is  but  the  record  of  dreams.  .  .  .  The  heavenly 
intent  of  earth's  shadows  is  to  chasten  the  affections, 
to  rebuke  human  consciousness  and  turn  it  gladly 
from  a  material,  false  sense  of  life  and  happiness,  to 
spiritual  joy  and  true  estimate  of  Being.^ 

*  "Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  33. 


CHAPTER    V 

FORMATIVE  PROCESSES 

AS  when  in  a  patriotic  symphony  one  hears  a  pro- 
longed orchestration  of  a  nation's  woe,  its 
anguish  crying  in  the  strings,  its  resentments  explo- 
sive in  the  brasses,  its  struggles  hinted  in  the  vague 
ruflBe  of  drums,  there  begins  to  be  apprehended  a 
note  of  hope,  which  swells  and  grows  until  the  horn 
takes  it  up  with  confidence  and  sings  and  soars 
above  the  harmonic  conflict  a  psean  of  faith ;  so  in 
preparing  to  sing  its  theme  a  great  life  is  submerged 
in  its  community,  through  periods  of  prolonged  and 
poignant  delay,  when  affairs  obtrude,  other  voices 
and  other  wills  are  clamorous,  and  its  clear  call  of 
faith  is  drowned  for  the  time,  heard  only  as  elfin 
notes  on  the  inner  ear  of  him  who  is  to  play  the 
great  strain. 

For  three  years  Mary  lived  with  her  sister  Abigail, 
though  she  spent  some  time  at  her  father's  home, 
where  she  accepted  the  new  regime  unflinchingly 
and  even  lovingly,  recognizing  freely  the  good  qual- 
ities and  capacities  of  her  stepmother.  She  occu- 
pied herself  with  writing  when  strong  enough,  and 
likew^ise  when  strong  enough  assisted  her  sister  in 
her  social  life  and  entertaining  which  brought 
influential  personages  to  their  board.     Mr.  Tilton 

4 


50  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

was  now  a  railroad  director  and  foresaw  a  future 
for  the  little  city. 

The  status  of  the  Tilton  and  Baker  families  in 
the  community  of  Central  New  Hampshire  has  been 
indicated.  The  town  in  which  they  lived  was  not 
far  from  Hillsborough,  Franklin  Pierce's  home,  or 
Boscawen,  the  early  home  of  Webster.  The  Bakers 
and  the  Tiltons  were  Democrats,  their  political  pre- 
dilection was  in  the  marrow  of  their  bones.  It  has 
been  indicated  that  influential  personages  gathered 
at  their  homes,  and  their  friendships  with  leading 
politicians  were  strong.  It  follows  that  discussion 
of  public  affairs  as  well  as  of  religion  and  business 
ventures  found  place  in  their  daily  intercourse,  in- 
fluencing members  of  the  families  in  their  relations 
toward  each  other. 

This  is  the  period  of  1850  to  1853,  when  public 
events  were  rapidly  changing  the  colonial  spirit  of 
all  Americans.  The  passage  of  the  Compromise  of 
1850,  devised  by  Clay,  which  included  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Act,  was  the  beginning  of  a  bitter  strife  in 
politics.  The  debates  which  now  waged  in  Congress 
were  perhaps  the  most  strenuous  mental  and  moral 
wrestlings  that  the  republic  of  the  United  States  has 
known.  This  wrestling  of  mind  and  soul  was  to  end 
only  in  the  mighty  physical  conflict  which  Americans 
call  the  Civil  War.  In  1850  Webster  was  working 
with  herculean  efforts  to  preserve  the  Union  against 
the  attacks  of  the  extreme  pro-slavery  men  on  the 
one  hand  and  of  the  abolitionists  on  the  other. 

The  Southern  states  hotly  resented  the  agitation 
of   the   question    of   the   morality   and   wisdom   of 


FORMATIVE  PROCESSES  51 

slavery,  while  the  North  seemed  to  experience  a 
shuddering  horror  over  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law, 
evading  its  rulings  wherever  possible  with  the  pas- 
sage of  personal  liberty  laws.  These  laws  were 
intended  to  protect  free  negroes  falsely  alleged  to  be 
fugitive  slaves  and  threatened  with  reenslavement. 
Such  a  fate  menaced  many  negroes  who  had  been 
set  free.  This  was  true  of  the  negroes  Mary  Baker 
Glover  had  freed.  In  the  first  place  with  freedom 
granted,  the  negro  had  had  to  leave  the  South  to 
preserve  it;  now  even  in  the  North  he  might  lose 
it  if  an  unscrupulous  trader  claimed  him. 

In  June,  1852,  Franklin  Pierce  of  New  Hamp- 
shire was  nominated  for  President  at  Baltimore  by 
the  Democratic  National  Convention  which  en- 
dorsed the  Compromise  of  1850  and  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law,  and  denounced  slavery  agitation.  The 
Free  Soil  Democrats,  a  month  later,  nominated 
John  P.  Hale  of  New  Hampshire  for  President. 
Daniel  Webster,  also  of  New  Hampshire,  would 
doubtless  have  been  the  Whig  candidate  but  for  his 
age  and  his  uncompromising  attitude  in  support  of 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  His  death  occurred  in 
October  of  that  year.  New  Hampshire  was  prob- 
ably never  more  mentally  excited  and  morally 
wrought  in  its  history. 

At  this  time  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  wrote  his  life 
of  Pierce,  a  delightful  biographic  sketch.  Pierce 
had  married  Jane  Appleton,  the  daughter  of  the 
president  of  Bowdoin  College,  Hawthorne's  alma 
mater.  Had  Albert  Baker  been  alive  he,  too,  must 
have    supported    Pierce    with    pen    and    oratory. 


52  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Families  were  greatly  influenced  in  their  political 
thought  by  their  old-time  friendships.  Pierce  was 
not  only  personally  a  man  of  rare  fascination  and 
magical  charm,  but  he  possessed  the  strength  con- 
ferred by  family  tradition  throughout  New  England. 

Mary  Baker  was  an  unusually  intellectual  woman ; 
where  did  she  stand  in  this  hour  ?  Conceive  her  po- 
sition. She  who  might  have  effectively  wielded  her 
pen  in  this  cause  must  allow  it  to  lie  idle.  She  must 
behold  another  woman  do  that  which,  with  her 
family  behind  her,  as  the  Beechers  were  behind 
Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  she,  too,  might  have  done. 
She  was  like  a  soldier  paroled  on  honor  whose  sword 
is  restless  in  its  scabbard.  Moreover,  she  was  de- 
prived of  independence  by  these  circumstances,  for, 
throttled  on  the  subject  for  which  she  felt  the  great- 
est interest,  she  could  not  write  on  sugary  nothings 
as  many  another  genius,  struggling  against  its  en- 
vironment, has  discovered.  Furthermore,  she  was 
ill  a  great  portion  of  the  time,  and  as  it  has  been 
shown  that  bereavement  contributed  to  that  physi- 
cal condition,  it  must  also  be  shown  that  mental 
isolation,  caused  by  her  independent  political  views, 
added  to  it.  Her  father,  who  had  contended  so 
bitterly  with  her  on  religion,  would  in  this  hour  have 
contended  with  equal  strenuosity  over  politics  had 
she  asserted  her  opinions.  Her  sister  Abigail  was 
likewise  set  against  her  in  political  views. 

It  is  still  remembered  in  that  community  how  the 
Tiltons  held  an  informal  social  gathering  and  every- 
body of  consequence  in  the  town  attended.  It  ap- 
pears to  have  been  a  semi-political  reception,  and 


for:mative  processes  53 

on  this  occasion  the  Baker  sisters  disagreed  before 
their  guests.  Mrs.  Glover  had  come  into  the  parlors 
to  assist  her  sister.  She  was  a  notable  figure,  be- 
cause of  her  grace  and  beauty,  though  wasted  in 
health,  and  her  large  eyes  burned  as  she  listened 
to  the  expressions  of  political  opinion  around  her, 
called  forth  by  the  presidential  campaign. 

"And  what  does  Mrs.  Glover  have  to  say  to  all 
this  ?  "  said  a  gentleman  who  had  obsen^ed  her  re- 
pressed emotion  while  listening  and  taking  no  part 
in  the  conversation.  All  eyes  turned  toward  her. 
Those  who  had  not  dared  to  venture  an  adverse 
opinion  in  the  great  house  of  the  town  hushed  the 
lighter-minded  around  them.  It  was  a  moment  of 
suspense  such  as  only  occasionally  thrills  a  social 
gathering. 

"I  say,"  said  Mrs.  Glover,  "that  the  South  as 
well  as  the  North  suffers  from  the  continuance  of 
slavery  and  its  spread  to  other  states;  that  the 
election  of  Franklin  Pierce  will  but  involve  us  in 
larger  disputes;  that  emancipation  is  written  on 
the  wall." 

The  gathering  had  received  its  thrill  which  went 
down  the  backs  of  the  several  guests  like  baptismal 
currents  of  lightnino;. 

"Mary,"  cried  her  sister,  "do  you  dare  to  say 
that  in  my  house  .^" 

"I  dare  to  speak  what  I  believe  in  any  house," 
responded  Mrs.  Glover  quietly. 

The  report  of  that  speech  went  abroad.  Mrs. 
Glover  is  remembered  for  it  to  this  day  by  elderly 
gentlemen  of  New  Hampshire.    They  say  Mrs.  Eddy 


64  THE   LIFE   OF  IVIARY  BAKER  EDDY 

was  an  extremely  intellectual  woman  at  thirty,  and 
that  she  had  remarkable  insight  in  affairs.  They 
also  say  that  her  pride  was  as  unbending  as  her 
father's.  Now  Abigail,  too,  had  made  a  speech, 
not  easily  forgotten  or  overlooked  by  a  Baker. 

Keeping  in  mind  these  political  agitations  which 
stirred  the  country,  and  further  grasping  the  hour 
by  remembering  that  it  was  now  railroads  were 
being  built  across  the  continent,  shipping  was  being 
improved  by  the  introduction  of  steam,  gold  had 
just  been  discovered  in  California,  improved  ma- 
chinery was  being  placed  on  the  farms  and  in  the 
mills,  it  will  be  seen  why,  with  rapid  changes  in  con- 
ditions of  living,  it  was  not  strange,  as  a  recent 
writer  ^  has  said,  that  there  should  be  a  correspond- 
ing change  in  the  minds  of  men  and  that  their  ideas 
should  become  unsettled  and  that  transcendentalism 
in  religion,  literature,  and  politics  should  begin  to 
flourish.  Methods  of  education  improved,  news- 
papers were  published  in  every  town,  the  lyceum 
system  of  lectures  became  popular.  Literature  in 
America  developed  a  new  school  of  which  the  lights 
were  Emerson,  Longfellow,  Whittier,  Lowell,  Haw- 
thorne, Holmes,  —  all  New  England  men. 
\  In  such  an  era  Spiritualism  had  its  birth,  and 
mesmerism  and  animal  magnetism  were  being 
widely  discussed.  But  if  a  Poyen  lectured  through 
New  England  on  these  subjects,  he  had  an  Emerson 
on  his  heels  with  saner  topics.  Yet  it  must  be  taken 
into  account  that  in  the  early  fifties  the  conversa- 
tion at  social  gatherings  was  everywhere  in  America 
charged  with  the  subject  of  Spiritualism.     In  1849 

'  Encyclopiedia  Britannica :  United  Staies. 


FORMATR^  PROCESSES  55 

the  Fox  sisters  of  Rochester  had  startled  the  world 
-^^-ith  the  story  of  their  "rappings."  That  the  ''un- 
discovered country"  should  be  rapping  to  our  world 
attention  seemed  almost  more  wonderful  than  if 
Mars  should  be  found  to-day  to  be  signaling  our 
planet. 

London  was  no  less  excited  over  this  topic  than 
New  York  or  Boston.  Mediums  developed  on  all 
sides.  They  saw  "the  vanished  hand"  and  heard 
"the  voice  that  is  still."  In  London  they  handled 
red-hot  coals  and  unfastened  cords  and  bonds,  they 
caused  musical  instruments  to  be  played  by  unseen 
touch  and  the  ringing  of  bells  to  sound  upon  the 
air.  Poyen  and  Andrew  Jackson  Davis  published 
books  on  mesmerism  or  animal  magnetism.  The 
cure  of  disease  by  clairvoyant  diagnosis  and  mes- 
meric healing  was  quite  commonly  given  credence. 
Were  such  ideas  reconcilable  with  religion  ?  They 
speculated  on  it  under  the  very  altar,  though  New 
England  was  not  peculiar  in  this  respect.  How- 
ever, it  is  a  just  assertion  that  not  to  have  heard 
such  discussions  or  not  to  have  been  interested  in 
them,  was  not  to  have  lived  at  all  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  time. 

Mary  Baker  did  live  in  that  consciousness,  fully 
and  deeply.  Just  as  she  lived  in  the  consciousness 
of  political  struggle,  jhst  as  she  drank  in  the  new 
literary  atmosphere  of  that  glorious  school  of  New 
England  writers,  she  was  aware  of  that  oscillation 
in  religious  notions.  Eveiy  circumstance  of  her 
education  and  breeding  had  given  her  the  habit  of 
dealing  with  life  in  a  large  way.    She  who  dared  to 


66  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

set  aside  her  father's  and  sister's  political  opinions 
to  maintain  her  own  convictions,  most  certainly  had 
ideas  concerning  Spiritualism.  But  to  connect  her 
life  seriously  at  any  period  with  Spiritualism  is  to 
make  use  of  unwarrantable  conjecture.  Was  this 
the  woman  to  go  into  trances  for  the  benefit  of  the 
superstitious  country  folk?  Would  such  as  these 
have  had  access  to  the  great  house,  to  the  secluded 
chamber,  to  the  invalid  absorbed  in  her  books  .^ 
Even  Dr.  Ladd,  the  family  physician,  who  was  in- 
terested in  mesmeric  experiments,  was  restrained 
from  practising  on  Mary  Baker  by  the  dignity  of 
her  position. 

The  time  came-  when  Mary  Baker  had  thought 
her  way  through  this  maze  of  intellectual  vaporing 
and  then  there  came  from  her  pen  a  refutation  of 
these  wonder-workings.  The  common  people  were 
those  she  then  sought  on  the  basis  of  an  independent 
life  of  voluntary  poverty.  She  sought  working  men 
and  women,  not  to  play  upon  their  superstition, 
^  but  to  clear  their  vision.  She  associated  with  Spir- 
J  itualists  for  years,  more  or  less ;  she  must  associate 
with  them  as  she  must  with  Universalists  and  Uni- 
tarians. She  did  not  avoid  them  or  their  discussions, 
as  will  be  shown  in  later  chapters.  At  times  she  was 
even  present  at  seances.  Her  dealing  with  the  en- 
tire subject  was  consistent,  and  her  deep  sounding 
of  its  contentions  was  as  much  a  part  of  her  develop- 
ment as  the  consideration  of  Calvinism  in  her  earlier 
years. 

While  living  with  her  sister  Abigail,  Mary  was 
i  often  confined  to  her  bed  for  long  periods.    She  was 


HOMK    OF    ABIGAH.    TII.TOX,    TIT.TON,    NEW    HAMPSHIRE 

Where  Mrs.  Eddy  lived  with  her  sister  before  her  second  marriage 
Removed  from  its  original  environment 


FORMATIVE  PROCESSES  57 

afflicted  with  a  spinal  weakness  which  caused  spas- 
modic seizures,  followed  by  prostration  which 
amounted  to  a  complete  nervous  collapse.  In  her 
moments  of  utter  weakness  her  father  would  take  her 
in  his  arms  and  soothe  her  as  though  she  were  again 
his  bairn.  All  differences  of  faith  and  opinion  were 
forgotten  in  the  purely  human  love  which  was  very 
strong  in  this  family.  Abigail  sought  in  divers  ways 
to  make  her  sister  more  comfortable.  She  had  a 
divan  fitted  with  rockers  to  give  Mary  a  change 
from  long  hours  in  bed,  and  when  the  invalid  would 
be  able  to  go  about  again  they  would  carry  her  down 
to  the  carriage  and  the  two  sisters  would  drive  slowly 
through  the  village  streets  and  country  highways. 

In  1853,  after  nine  years  of  widowhood,  a  com- 
plete change  was  brought  about  in  her  life  and  in  all 
the  circumstances  of  it,  through  a  second  marriage. 
Mrs.  Eddy  has  said  this  marriage  was  unfortunate- 
and  has  left  it  without  further  word  of  protest. 
It  was  unfortunate,  yet  jeweled  adversity.  It  oc- 
cupied twelve  years  in  the  heart  of  her  life,  and 
subjected  her  to  a  measure  of  isolation  and  social 
obscurity.  But  it  carried  her  away  from  worldly 
stimulation  to  a  prolonged  retreat  in  the  mountains 
where  significant  experiences  dealt  with  her  heart. 
From  1850  until  1875  was  largely  a  period  of  nega- 
tion for  her.  She  passed  a  great  part  of  this  time 
in  small  towns  far  from  the  madding  strife  of  cities. 
She  experienced  much  suffering  physically  and  went  '■ 
through  mental  agony  few  natures  are  called  upon 
to  endure.  She  did  not  succumb  to  the  assaults  of 
pain  or  grief,  but  emerged  with  a  work  which  seems 


58  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

destined   to   greatly   change   the   world's   religious 
thought. 

Dr.  Daniel  Patterson,  a  dentist,  a  relative  of  Mark 
Baker's  second  wife,  came  to  their  home  on  a  visit. 
He  was  a  big,  handsome,  healthy  man  with  great 
animal  spirits  and  excessive  confidence  in  himself. 
He  had  some  knowledge  of  homeopathy  and  used 
the  prescribed  remedies  for  his  dental  patients  in 
his  journeys  through  the  country.  Mrs.  Glover's 
invalidism  interested  him.  He  expounded  it  to  the 
family.  She  was  too  delicate,  he  declared,  for  harsh 
remedies  and  would  be  particularly  susceptible  to 
high  medical  attenuations,  the  catch  phrase  of  the 
new  medical  school  of  the  hour.  A  crisis  occurring 
in  her  illness,  he  experimented  and  brought  her 
through  successfully.  On  a  day  in  due  season. 
Dr.  Patterson  confided  to  Mrs.  Tilton  that  he  loved 
her  sister,  that  he  believed  her  to  be  suffering  as 
i/  much  from  the  separation  from  her  child  as  from 
organic  functional  disorder.  He  wanted  to  marry 
her,  reunite  her  with  her  child,  give  her  her  own 
home,  and  make  her  a  well  woman  through  the  care 
he  would  bestow. 

It  is  not  likely  that  Mrs.  Tilton  reflected  sufli- 
ciently  to  detect  an  ambitious  project,  or  that  she 
saw  more  than  an  honest  love  offering  devoted  care. 
She  consulted  her  father  who  discussed  the  matter 
with  the  dentist.  Mark  Baker  must  have  been 
doubtful  of  this  fluent-speaking,  full-bearded,  broad- 
shouldered  optimist  in  broadcloth.  Dr.  Patterson 
was  always  something  of  a  dandy,  and  even  in 
the  mountains  wore  broadcloth  and  fine  linen,  kid 


FORMATIVE  PROCESSES  59 

gloves  and  boots,  topping  all  with  a  silk  hat.  His 
raiment  was  a  considerable  part  of  his  personality. 
Mr.  Baker  must  have  taken  a  more  accurate  measure 
of  this  man  than  did  Mrs.  Tilton,  but  he  knew^  it  was 
true  that  Mary  never  ceased  to  grieve  for  her  child, 
—  her  child  that  was  not  welcome  either  in  the  home 
of  his  second  wife  or  in  the  Tilton  home.  A  mar- 
riage that  would  restore  that  child  to  Mary  might 
rouse  her  to  health  and  happiness.  Moreover,  the 
dentist  was  a  kinsman  of  his  wife. 

The  marriage  was  accordingly  arranged,  and  took 
place  at  the  Baker  home.  Mrs.  Glover,  who  was 
at  first  startled  at  the  proposal  and  much  averse  to 
the  marriage,  has  explained  why  she  consented  to  it 
and  how  disastrously  it  terminated  for  her  in  two 
succinct  sentences.  She  says :  "My  dominant  thought 
in  marrying  again  was  to  get  back  my  child;  but 
after  our  marriage  his  stepfather  was  not  willing  he 
should  have  a  home  with  me."  ^ 

Dr.  Patterson  first  took  his  wife  to  Franklin,  a 
nearby  factory  town,  where  they  lived  for  three 
years.  He  employed  a  housekeeper  but  put  his 
wife  off  with  regard  to  her  child.  She  must  wait 
until  her  health  improved.  He  was  much  abroad 
traveling  from  village  to  village.  He  called  fre- 
quently upon  his  influential  relatives  in  Tilton,  and 
sometimes  leaned  a  bit  heavily  upon  their  good- 
will. Not  very  prosperous,  he  was  always  confi- 
dent that  just  around  the  corner  was  the  best  success 
in  the  world.  Left  much  to  herself,  Mrs.  Patterson, 
as  we  must  now  call  Mary  Baker,  read  deeply  in 

'  "Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  32. 


60  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

her  books.  She  had  brought  to  FrankHn  furnishings 
to  make  her  small  home  comfortable,  a  few  pieces  of 
mahogany  willed  to  her  by  her  mother,  long  mirrors 
in  gilt  frames,  her  own  excellent  collection  of  books. 
A  few  family  friends  came  from  time  to  time  and  cer- 
tain of  the  townspeople  called.  Among  them,  Mr. 
Warren  Daniels,  a  wealthy  and  retired  mill  owner 
still  living  in  Franklin,  says  that  Mrs.  Patterson's 
reputation  for  intellect  and  beauty  had  preceded 
her,  but  that  in  Franklin  she  led  a  retired  life,  was 
the  most  resei-ved  of  women,  and  one  whom  all 
men  must  respect  and  honor. 

In  1856  Mrs.  Patterson  persuaded  her  husband 
to  remove  to  Groton,  a  village  to  the  North  of  the 
Winnepesaukee  region,  near  the  entrance  of  the 
Franconia  range  of  the  White  Mountains.  In  this 
village  her  son  was  living  with  the  Cheneys.  Per- 
haps Dr.  Patterson  was  more  easily  persuaded  to 
make  the  change  since  the  Tiltons  held  a  mortgage 
on  a  little  property  in  that  town  which  he  hoped  to 
buy  on  easy  terms.  Groton  is  a  farming  center, 
little  changed  in  fifty  years.  It  boasts  a  general 
store  and  post-office,  a  blacksmith  shop,  district 
school  and  Union  church.  Situated  some  miles 
back  from  the  railroad,  its  elevation  is  about  one 
thousand  feet  above  sea-level.  The  journey  thither 
is  by  conveyance,  up  through  the  foot-hills  along  a 
valley  pass,  following  a  turbulent  trout  stream  which 
leaps  and  falls  over  the  rocks,  singing  a  wild  little 
song  of  its  own.  Two  mountains  loom  blue  and 
magnificent  away  to  the  North.  On  the  lesser  hills 
along  the  way  the  loggers  are  at  work. 


^       o 


FORMATIVE  PROCESSES  61 

The  new  home  was  a  Uttle  unpainted  cottage  off 
the  main  road.  It  was  beside  the  stream  in  which 
was  a  mill-dam.  John  Kidder,  a  machinist  and 
cabinet-maker,  was  their  neighbor,  and  had  an 
interest  in  the  sawmill  attached  to  the  Patterson 
property.  Other  neighbors  there  were  not  far  away. 
It  was  not  a  lonely  or  desolate  spot.  The  town  had 
a  small  library;  to  the  church  came  different  de- 
nominational preachers ;  the  school  had  eighty-four 
pupils  and  was  taught  by  a  man  now  holding  a  po- 
sition in  the  faculty  of  a  Massachusetts  college. 
Many  physicians,  lawyers,  and  clergymen  now 
scattered  over  the  United  States  came  from  this 
mountain  village.  Clergymen  especially  seemed 
to  develop  here,  twenty  having  gone  out  into  the 
world  from  this  mountain  nest  in  the  past  fifty 
years. 

The  Patterson  home  in  exterior  was  not  unlike  its 
neighbors,  but  within  it  was  dift'erent.  Mrs.  Patter- 
son carried  with  her  an  atmosphere  which  was  re- 
flected in  her  surroundings.  She  was  bedridden  most 
of  the  time  they  lived  here, yet  her  active  mind  secured 
perfect  order,  exquisite  cleanliness,  a  shining  radi- 
ance of  books,  prints,  polished  mahogany,  and  a 
cherished  few  gleaming  bits  of  silver  service  and 
brass  candlesticks.  At  first  she  had  a  housekeeper, 
but  one  day  she  took  in  a  blind  girl  who  came  to  her 
door  seeking  employment.  The  housekeeper  pro- 
tested and  Mrs.  Patterson  allowed  the  housekeeper 
to  go  and  retained  the  blind  girl,  who  was  with  her 
for  several  years  and  to-day  pays  a  beautiful  tribute 
to  Mrs.  Eddy's   kindness.      She  speaks  of  her  as 


rfl^ 


62  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

low-voiced    and    gentle,    but    insistent    on    perfect 
housekeeping. 

She  not  only  befriended  the  blind  girl,  but  was 
kind  to  her  sister,  who  says:  *'I  thought  it  the  most 
beautiful  home  in  the  world.  I  was  a  child  of  ten 
and  used  to  visit  my  sister  Myra.  I  remember  well 
how  Mrs.  Patterson  would  call  me  to  her  room,  lay 
down  her  book,  and  place  her  thin  white  hand  on 
my  head  or  stroke  my  cheek.  She  wished  to  com- 
fort me,  for  I  had  lately  lost  a  good  father." 

Of  Mrs.  Eddy's  extreme  invalidism  at  this  time 
there  is  no  doubt.  "I  had  the  honor  to  take  care  of 
Mrs.  Eddy  once,"  said  a  very  old  woman  of  Groton. 
"She  was  all  alone  in  her  home  and  I  heard  her  bell 
ringing.  I  went  in  and  found  her  lying  rigid  with 
foam  on  her  lips.  I  brought  her  around  with  cold 
water.  She  motioned  to  her  medicine  chest,  and  I 
gaVe  her  what  she  wanted.  Then  I  sat  with  her  till 
she  got  better." 

She  was  indeed  far  from  well,  but  Mrs.  Patterson 
had  come  to  Groton  to  be  with  her  boy.  Her  desire 
/for  him  amounted  to  a  passionate  hunger  of  mater- 
nity, and  he,  when  he  had  seen  his  mother  again, 
was  as  eager  to  be  with  her.  But  now  a  peculiar 
jealousy  interfered  between  mother  and  son.  He 
would  come  to  his  mother  in  spite  of  the  injunctions 
of  his  foster  parents  and  his  stepfather,  and  once 
broke  through  the  window  to  get  into  her  room. 
Dr.  Patterson  would  find  him  there  with  his  books, 
leaning  upon  his  mother's  couch,  while  she  ex- 
amined his  progress  in  studies,  a  poor  progress 
indeed  as  she  found.    The  blind  servant  states  that 


FORMATIVE  PROCESSES  63 

these  visits  aroused  Dr.  Patterson  to  declare  a  per- 
emptory prohibition  of  the  lad  from  the  house,  which 
was  not  entirely  successful.  He  reported  to  the 
Tiltons  that  the  boy  could  not  be  kept  away  and 
that  he  exhausted  his  mother.  That  report  brought 
Abigail  Tilton  to  Groton  on  a  visit,  and  the  Cheneys 
shortly  after  fulfilled  an  ambition  long  cherished  by 
going  West.  In  her  autobiography  Mrs.  Eddy  writes 
of  her  son: 

A  plot  was  consummated  for  keeping  us  apart. 
The  family  to  whose  care  he  was  committed  very 
soon  removed  to  what  was  then  regarded  as  the  far 
West.  After  his  removal  a  letter  was  read  to  my 
little  son  informing  him  that  his  mother  was  dead 
and  buried.  Without  my  knowledge  he  was  ap- 
pointed a  guardian,  and  I  was  then  informed  that 
my  son  was  lost.  Every  means  within  my  power 
was  employed  to  find  him  but  without  success.  We 
never  met  again  until  he  had  reached  the  age  of 
thirty-four.^ 

Young  Glover  ran  away  from  the  Cheneys  after 
they  had  been  in  Minnesota  a  short  time,  and  as  a 
young  lad  enlisted  in  the  Union  army  for  the  Civil 
War.  He  made  a  good  record  as  a  soldier,  was 
wounded  at  Shiloh,  and  after  the  war  became  a 
United  States  marshal,  and  led  the  life  of  a  pros- 
pector in  the  Western  states.  Mrs.  Eddy  had  a 
temporary  knowledge  of  him.  He  wrote  her  from 
the  front  during  the  war,  and  that  her  love  for  him 
was  not  uprooted  by  continual  separation  was  shown 
in  her  excitement  and  joy  at  hearing  from  him.    She 

*  "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  32, 


64  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

called  in  her  friends  to  read  his  letter,  and  wept  over 
it  and  kissed  its  pages.  But  her  son  passed  again 
into  obscurity,  bent  on  the  pursuit  of  a  freedom 
which  he  first  learned  to  love  at  the  Sanborn  smithy, 
and  which  life  in  the  wild  West  of  those  days  seemed 
to  foster  as  second-nature.  Thus  he  grew  up  be- 
yond the  sphere  of  his  mother's  influence  and  his 
life  became  fixed  in  a  path  diverse  to  hers.  Destiny 
inscrutable  seemed  fixed  in  its  decree  that  she  should 
live  childless  and  alone. 

When  they  took  her  boy  from  her  arms  the  second 
time,  Mrs.  Patterson  seemed  about  to  sink  into  utter 
despair.  A  very  old  man,  of  more  than  ninety  years, 
devout  and  saint-like,  used  to  visit  her.  He  came 
nearly  every  day  to  read  the  Bible  and  pray.  One 
day  when  old  Father  Merrill  came  to  her  home,  he 
saw  Mrs.  Patterson  dressed  and  walking  to  meet 
him  with  a  smile  and  outstretched  hands  of  wel- 
come. He  leaped  with  delight,  clapping  his  hands 
and  crying  out,  "Praise  God,  he's  answered  our 
prayer."  Earnestly  they  discussed  it  together.  Was 
her  improved  condition  an  answer  to  prayer  ?  Mrs. 
Patterson  believed  that  a  blameless  life  should  be 
healthy,  but  the  old  man  thought  God  sometimes 
sent  sickness  for  spiritual  good.  She  did  not  cross 
this  old  man  with  argument,  but  she  had  begun  to 
work  on  the  idea  that  w  ould  haunt  her  for  years  until 
perfected,  the  nature  of  Divine  healing. 

Their  neighbors,  the  Kidders,  were  also  friendly 
visitors.  Mrs.  Kidder  was  a  Spiritualist  and  spent 
hours  urging  its  claims  on  Mrs.  Patterson.  A  child 
born  to  the  Kidders  at  this  time  Mrs.  Patterson 


FORIVIATIVE  PROCESSES  65 

named  after  her  father.  She  also  took  the  Kidders' 
son,  Daniel,  a  lad  of  fifteen,  for  a  private  pupil.  He 
was  an  ambitious  lad  and  has  since  had  a  successful 
career  in  mechanics  and  railroad  construction.  He 
remembers  with  gratitude  the  help  Mrs.  Patterson 
gave  him  with  his  studies,  especially  in  rudimentary 
mathematics  and  physics. 

Dr.  Patterson  had  kept  up  his  itineracy  while  at 
Groton.  He  has  a  record  for  a  certain  sort  of  gal- 
lantry through  the  country  and  was  once  pursued 
to  his  home  by  an  irate  blacksmith  whose  wife  was 
too  attractive  to  the  doctor.  The  less  of  this  re- 
counted is  the  better,  save  only  that  his  unfitness  as 
a  husband  be  shown.  His  fortunes  did  not  thrive. 
Although  he  mortgaged  Mrs.  Patterson's  furniture 
and  articles  of  jewelry,  he  could  not  meet  his  pay- 
ments on  the  little  property.  A  certain  farmer  went 
to  Tilton  and  took  up  the  mortgage  on  the  house, 
and  then  demanded  possession  of  the  mill.  Dr. 
Patterson  defied  him  with  high  words,  and  the  vil- 
lagers say  they  had  a  personal  encounter.  When 
Dr.  Patterson  saw  the  legal  paper  he  prepared 
to  remove,  not  only  from  the  mill  but  from 
Groton. 

Mrs.  Tilton  came  over  to  remove  her  sister  in  a 
carriage.  Together  they  drove  down  the  mountain 
road.  The  village  church  bell  was  tolling,  and 
Dr.  Patterson's  enemy  having  got  into  the  church, 
found  this  means  of  expressing  his  derision.  The 
blind  girl  walked  behind  all  the  way  to  Rumney,  a 
distance  of  six  miles.  She  would  not  ride  in  the 
carriage    where   she   could    hear    the   sobs    of    her 

5 


66  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

mistress.  Abigail  held  her  sister  in  her  arms  and 
strove  to  comfort  her.  And  well  she  might.  She 
who  managed  with  such  executive  skill  in  many 
affairs  had  managed  but  indifferently  in  arranging 
this  marriage. 


CHAPTER    VI 

ILLUMINATION   AND   BACKWARD   TURNING 

IN  threading  the  labyrinth  of  a  mind  to  find  its 
starting  point  upon  a  new  phase  of  existence,  it  is 
frequently  most  difficult  to  lay  hold  of  the  silken 
clue  which  guided  it  to  the  gateway  out  of  a  maze 
of  turnings.  Every  life  has  its  moments  of  revelation 
when  it  would  seem  proper  to  start  away  upon  the 
higher  adventures  of  the  soul;  but  seldom  does  a 
human  being  go  forward  without  hesitation,  leaving 
the  past  with  its  thousand  detaining  hands  by  an 
irrevocable  decision.  Having  received  the  vision, 
beheld  the  clear  trail  of  a  path  up  the  mountain,  the 
pilgrim  soul,  with  mystifying  impulses  which  it  can- 
not itself  understand,  obeying  instincts  which  lie  too 
deep  for  scrutiny,  will  almost  invariably  turn  back- 
ward on  the  road  of  experience  to  reembrace  its  worn- 
out  illusions  and  weep  at  its  old  tombs.  Finding 
the  old  life  and  its  associations  as  disappoint- 
ing and  unprofitable  as  ever,  it  will  agonize  once 
more  over  its  mistakes,  and  putting  them  off  again 
one  by  one,  will  back  away  toward  its  future,  with 
face  set  miserably  upon  the  past.  Not  until  the  past 
smites  him,  will  the  pilgrim,  with  a  sudden  realiza- 
tion of  himself,  turn  right  about  and  rush  for  his 
mountain.  Now  he  must  search  again  for  the  path. 
His  search  may  be  weary  and  performed  in  humility, 


68  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

but  the  path  once  found  will  never  again  be  forsaken 
for  that  pathless  wilderness  where  each  human 
being  experiences  doubts  and  despairs. 

When  Dr.  Patterson  removed  from  Groton  he 
engaged  board  for  himself  and  his  wife  at  the  home 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  Herbert  at  Rumney  Station. 
The  house  was  a  substantial  frame  dwelling  of  the 
Colonial  type  with  comfortable  chambers  looking 
out  upon  broad  lawns.  The  family  life  at  first 
appeared  to  be  as  broadly  harmonious  as  the  fashion 
of  its  dwelling.  Mrs.  Patterson's  invalidism,  how- 
ever, soon  aroused  comment  among  the  frequenters 
of  the  home.  As  the  frail,  delicate  woman  had  been 
criticized  by  the  thoughtless  mountaineers  of  Groton 
who  in  their  rugged  health  believed  the  handsome 
^  doctor  to  be  a  martyr  to  the  whims  of  an  exacting 
^  invalid,  so  in  Rumney  she  was  criticized  by  the  gossip- 
ing ladies  of  the  boarding-house.  If  Dr.  Patterson, 
obedient  to  his  better  instincts  of  courtesy,  picked 
up  his  wife's  handkerchief,  or  readjusted  her  shawl, 
they  were  jealously  observant,  or  if  in  hearty  buoy- 
ancy he  displayed  the  tenderness  of  strength  toward 
weakness  and  lifted  Mrs.  Patterson  in  his  arms  to 
carry  her  up-stairs,  they  sat  silently  disapproving. 
For  such  misinterpretation  of  her  invalidism  and 
lack  of  appreciation  of  her  character  she  has  been 
misunderstood  in  that  neighborhood  for  half  a 
century.  Often  a  nervous  sufferer,  she  soon  felt 
the  wisdom  of  retiring  from  this  atmosphere  and 
persuaded  the  doctor,  who  contemplated  locating  in 
Rumney,  to  procure  a  cottage  in  Rumney  village 


ILLUMINATION  AND  BACKWARD  TURNING       69 

about  a  mile  back  in  the  hills.  This  cottage  occupied 
an  eminence  near  the  edge  of  the  town  and  com- 
manded an  agreeable  view.  It  was  a  pretty  home, 
as  her  Groton  home  had  been,  and  her  blind  servant 
was  still  with  her  and  gave  her  devoted  care. 

The  blind  girl,  Myra  Smith,  has  described  in 
detail  Mrs.  Patterson's  persevering  efforts  to  recover 
her  health  both  at  Groton  and  in  Rumney,  and  her 
account  is  interesting  because  of  the  light  it  throws 
on  that  period  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  life,  and  especially 
because  of  the  edification  it  may  be  to  other  invalids. 
She  relates  that  Mrs.  Patterson  faithfully  observed 
the  laws  of  hygiene.  Every  morning,  even  in  the 
depth  of  winter  when  the  weather  was  severely  cold 
in  that  mountainous  climate,  Mrs.  Patterson  was 
lifted  from  her  bed  into  a  chair,  wrapped  in  blankets. 
Her  chair  was  then  drawn  out  into  the  veranda, 
where  she  remained  as  long  as  she  could  sit  up, 
drinking  in  deep  breaths  of  pure  air  and  feasting  her 
eyes  upon  the  beauty  of  the  hills. 

Her  room  meanwhile  was  thrown  wide  open  to 
admit  a  free  current  of  air  and  streams  of  sunshine. 
Her  bed  was  redressed  for  the  day  and  when  the 
apartment  was  restored  to  a  proper  temperature  the 
invalid  returned  to  it.  She  was  then  bathed,  rubbed 
in  alcohol,  reclothed,  and  again  lifted  into  her  bed. 
She  had  a  mattress  that  could  be  elevated  at  the 
head  and  many  of  her  hours  were  passed  in  the 
half-reclining  attitude  in  which  it  was  possible  for 
her  to  read,  write,  or  even  receive  callers  when  not 
suffering  too  great  pain.  She  ate  sparingly  and 
according  to  a  strict  diet,  imposing  upon  herself  a 


70  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

severe  regimen  of  which  water,  coarse  bread,  and 
natural  fruits  w^ere  the  principal  articles  of  nourish- 
ment. 

Beside  attention  to  hygienic  regulation  of  bathing, 
eating,  and  going  into  the  fresh  air,  Mrs.  Patterson 
received  homeopathic  treatment  from  Dr.  Patterson, 
and  she  herself  read  books  on  homeopathy.  But 
for  all  this,  the  spinal  weakness  was  not  overcome 
and  the  nervous  seizures  continued  to  occur  with 
increasing  violence.  Mrs.  Patterson  was  wasting  to 
a  shadow  under  the  most  careful  nursing,  and  her 
life  was  being  consumed  in  ineffectual  efforts  to 
appease  the  ravishment  of  pain. 

While  she  was  still  in  this  condition  of  ill  health, 
Dr.  Patterson  left  her  alone  with  her  servant  and 
took  a  journey  to  Washington.  His  journey  was 
made  primarily  to  carry  out  a  commission  for 
Governor  Berry  of  New  Hampshire,  who  had  a  fund 
to  be  distributed  to  loyal  Southerners.  This  com- 
mission enabled  him  to  push  a  project  of  his  own, 
for  he  had  been  excited  by  the  news  of  the  fall  of 
Sumter,  when  South  Carolina,  having  seceded,  had 
fired  the  first  shot  in  the  American  Civil  War,  and 
it  was  Dr.  Patterson's  hope  to  secure  an  appointment 
on  the  medical  staff  of  the  army.  But  going  out  to 
view  the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  he  strayed  too  far  into 
the  Confederate  camp  and  was  captured  and  made 
a  prisoner,  presumably  as  a  spy.  He  was  taken  to 
Libbey,  the  famous  Southern  war  prison,  where  his 
experiences  were  hard  and  bitter  as  were  those  of  all 
who  endured  like  captivity. 

Mrs.  Patterson  read  his  name  in  the  list  of  prison- 


ILLUMINATION  AND  BACKWARD  TURNING       71 

ers  furnished  in  press  dispatches.  She  could  do 
nothing  to  aid  him  though  her  sympathy  for  him 
was  keen  as  expressed  in  letters  written  at  this  time 
in  the  effort  to  stir  her  relatives  to  activity  in  his 
behalf,  for  in  spite  of  his  many  shortcomings,  in  all 
personal  relations  he  had  invariably  been  kind  to  her 
and  she  had  for  Dr.  Patterson  a  true  wife's  devotion. 
It  was  at  about  this  time  that  she  heard  from  her 
son  for  the  first  time  since  he  had  been  taken  from 
her  in  Groton.  He  had  enlisted  and  gone  to  the 
front.  How  intolerable  it  seemed  to  her  to  lie  sick/ 
and  inert  in  that  lonely  cottage,  with  husband  and  son  '' 
caught  in  the  maelstrom  of  her  country's  agony,  — 
how  desolate  and  dreary  her  days  may  be  imagined. 
Bedridden  in  the  remote  mountain  village,  with 
little  or  no  company  but  that  of  her  maid,  she  was 
once  more  thrown  back  upon  herself,  and  forced  by 
desolation  and  pain  to  seek  God  for  comfort  and 
grace  to  endure  her  lot  while  the  world  was  unfold- 
ing famous  pages  of  history. 

The  w^orld,  in  the  persons  of  the  great  folk  of  the 
vicinity,  came  to  her  occasionally.  Her  maid  re- 
members the  grand  airs,  the  rustling  garments  and 
the  consequential  stir  created  by  the  calls  of  certain 
great  dames  who  kept  up  the  punctilious  formality, 
if  not  neighborly  charity,  of  remembering  what  was 
due  Mrs.  Patterson,  born  Baker,  also  sister  of  the 
wealthy  Mrs.  Til  ton.  But  these  intrusions  of  the 
world  were  few  and  far  between. 

Meantime  Mrs.  Patterson  read  her  Bible  day  by  ^•^ 
day.     At  this  time  she  more  earnestly  than  ever 
pondered  the  cures  of  the  early  church.     She  has 


72  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

written  in  "Science  and  Health"  ^  how  in  child- 
hood she  often  Ustened  with  joy  to  these  words 
faUing  from  the  Ups  of  her  sainted  mother,  "God  is 
able  to  raise  you  up  from  sickness."  She  also 
declares  how  she  dwelt  upon  the  meaning  of  this 
passage  of  Scripture  which  her  mother  so  often 
quoted,  "And  these  signs  shall  follow  them  that 
believe ;  they  shall  lay  hands  upon  the  sick  and  they 
shall  recover."  Some  of  her  early  experiences  now 
came  back  to  her.  She  recalled  how  through  her 
mother's  advice  to  rest  in  God's  love  she  had  been 
able  to  recover  from  the  fever  brought  on  by  re- 
ligious argument  with  her  father  and  pastor.  She 
also  recalled  how  she  had  subdued  the  insane  man 
in  Tilton  when  she  was  a  schoolgirl  and  brought 
him  into  a  state  of  calmness  and  tranquillity  when 
every  one  else  had  fled  from  him  in  terror.  She  re- 
membered her  exalted  religious  state  at  the  period  of 

•  both  these  cures  and  endeavored  to  determine 
whether  such  cures  depended  upon  extreme  intensity 
of  faith  or  whether  a  calm  sense  of  assurance  might 
not  as  surely  reach  God's  attention.  While  studying 
and  meditating  on  these  apparent  miracles  of  faith 
in  her  own  experience  and  striving  to  connect  them 
with  the  manner  and  method  of  the  New  Testament 
cures,  a  singular  event  befell  which  gives  verity  to 
Mrs.  Eddy's  assertion  that  for  years  before  the 
discovery  of  Christian  Science  she  had  been  search- 
ing for  spiritual  causation  for  disease  and  a  spiritual 

i  method  of  cure. 

I  Aside  from  the  calls  of  her  aristocratic  neighbors, 
she  was  not  entirely  forgotten  by  the  village.     The 

*  "Science  and  Health,"  p.  359. 


ILLUMINATION  AND  BACKWARD  TURNING       73 

children,  picking  berries  along  the  road,  would  often 
stop  to  talk  to  "the  good  sick  lady"  and  often 
repeated  at  home  or  in  the  houses  where  they  sold 
their  berries  what  she  said  to  them,  how  her  blue  eyes 
shone  upon  them,  and  how  her  thin  hands  touched 
their  little  brown  ones  with  thrilling  sympathy. 

So  by  the  love  of  the  children  a  gentle  rumor  of 
saintliness  was  spread  through  that  region  and  if 
Mary  Baker  thought  upon  the  saintliness  of  her 
mother,  some  dwellers  of  the  countryside  came  to 
think  of  Mrs.  Patterson  as  a  saint  and  to  go  to  her 
for  advice  and  comfort.  Among  those  who  sought 
her  aid  was  a  mother  carrying  her  infant,  a  child 
whose  eyes  were  badly  diseased.  The  mother  was 
a  simple  working  woman,  so  simple  that  she  could 
still  believe  there  was  a  relation  between  piety  and 
power.  She  wept  as  she  laid  her  babe  on  Mrs. 
Patterson's  knees  and  implored  her  to  ask  God  to 
cure  its  blindness. 

Mrs.  Patterson  was  touched  by  the  woman's 
faith  and  the  child's  apparent  need.  She  took  the 
babe  in  her  arms  and  looked  into  its  eyes.  She  saw 
they  were  in  such  a  state  of  inflammation  that  neither 
the  pupil  nor  the  iris  was  discernible.  She  reflected 
that  Jesus  had  said,  "Suffer  the  little  children 
to  come  unto  me  and  forbid  them  not."  "Who," 
she  asked  herself,  "has  forbidden  this  little  one, 
who  is  leading  it  into  the  w^ay  of  blindness  .^"  Mrs. 
Eddy  has  stated  that  she  lifted  her  thought  to  God 
and  returned  the  child  to  its  mother,  assuring  her 
that  God  is  able  to  keep  his  children.  The  mother 
looked  at  the  child's  eyes  and  they  were  healed. 


74  THE   LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

This  apparently  miraculous  happening  struck  awe 
to  Mary  Baker  as  well  as  to  the  mother. 

Here  was  a  clear  manifestation  of  God's  eternal 
laws  of  health  made  to  the  mind  and  consciousness 
of  Mary  Baker.  She  had  invoked  God's  mercy  and 
power  and  the  response  had  come  almost  instantly. 
She  believed  and  yet  was  bewildered.  Here  was 
vision,  apocalypse.  God  had  healed  the  child  and 
despite  that  fact  she  was  still  enchained  with  pain. 
She  had  understood  for  the  child,  but  could  not,  as 
yet,  understand  for  herself.  She  had  by  chance 
struck  the  harmonious  chord,  and  a  spontaneous 
healing  had  resulted.  She  saw  there  was  a  path  out 
of  her  wilderness,  but  its  beginning  for  her  own  feet 
was  not  clear.  The  detaining  hands  of  the  past  and 
experiences  she  was  about  to  go  through  were  to 
impede  her  progress  toward  the  clear  understanding 
of  truth. 

During  the  previous  autumn  Dr.  Patterson  had 
been  much  interested  in  circulars  describing  the 
healing  powers  of  one  Phineas  P.  Quimby  of 
Portland,  Maine.  This  Quimby  had  a  peculiar 
reputation.  To  some  minds  he  was  a  charlatan, 
nothing  more,  a  man  who  had  learned  some  tricks 
of  mesmerism  by  which  he  amazed  the  hearts  of 
the  ignorant.  To  other  minds  he  was  a  humane, 
self-sacrificing  man  of  rare  endowments  who  through 
abstruse  study  had  become  acquainted  with  secret 
laws  of  nature  by  whicji  he  was  able  to  restore  the 
sick  to  health.  From  time  to  time  the  newspapers 
printed  accounts  of  him,  now  ridiculing  him  and 
now  extolling  him. 


ILLUMINATION  AND   BACKWARD  TURNING       75 

Dr.  Patterson  had  been  inclined  to  take  a  favorable 
view  of  him  and  defend  him  against  derision.  Being 
himself  unable  to  cure  his  wife  as  he  had  confidently 
expected  to  do,  he  felt  much  interest  in  the  accounts 
of  Quimby's  cures.  It  did  not  matter  if  Quimby 
were  a  mesmerist,  or  a  Spiritualist,  or  if  he  trans- 
mitted magnetic  currents.  The  thing  was  he  cured. 
People  went  to  him  and  got  well.  It  was  very  much 
in  this  matter  with  Dr.  Patterson  as  in  all  the 
affairs  of  life,  a  case  of  "lo  here,  lo  there  !" 

So  the  doctor  had  written  Quimby  in  the  fall  of 
1861,  telling  him  that  his  wife  had  been  for  many 
years  an  invalid  from  a  spinal  disease,  and  that 
having  heard  of  his  wonderful  cures,  he  desired  to 
have  him  visit  her ;  or  if  Quimby  intended  to  journey 
to  Concord,  he  would  carry  his  wife  to  him.  Quimby 
replied  that  he  had  no  intention  of  making  a  trip  to 
Concord,  that  he  had  all  the  business  he  could 
attend  to  in  Portland,  but  that  he  had  no  doubt 
whatever  he  could  eft'ect  Mrs.  Patterson's  cure  if 
she  would  come  to  him. 

Dr.  Patterson,  however,  had,  as  has  been  related, 
projects  of  his  own  which  more  and  more  took 
possession  of  him  as  he  read  the  news  of  Lincoln's 
inauguration  and  the  call  for  troops  to  defend  the 
Union.  He  was  full  of  his  proposed  trip  to  Washing- 
ton, and  the  preliminary  visit  which  must  be  made 
to  Concord,  These  plans  required  all  the  funds  and 
energy  he  had  to  bestow. 

Mrs.  Patterson  read  the  Quimby  letter  with  its 
closing  assurance  many  times.  She  asked  herself 
often  if  it  were  not  possible  that  this  man  withheld 


76  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

his  real  experiences  from  his  public  circular  because 
of  their  sacredness,  if  it  were  not  likely  that  by  piety 
!  and  prayer,  rather  than  by  mesmerism,  he  had 
learned  the  power  of  healing.  This  was  a  perfectly 
consistent  speculation,  for  from  her  childhood,  from 
the  days  of  her  studying  with  her  brother  and  later 
with  her  pastor,  she  had  been  taught  to  look  for  a 
law  of  cause  and  effect.  Now  here  was  a  man 
heaUng,  she  reflected,  and  there  must  be  a  law  to 
govern  his  cases.  Moreover  it  was  natural  to  her 
to  take  the  religious  view,  that  this  law  was  only 
understood  through  revelation,  and  to  credit  Quimby 
with  having  received  the  revelation.  She  was  a 
sincere  Christian  and  believed  healing  without 
medicine  must  be  done  by  God. 

Still  it  was  the  law  she  sought  for.  It  was  not 
enough  for  her  that  here  and  there  a  miracle  of 
piety  could  be  performed  by  those  who  gave  their 
lives  up  to  prayer.  She  had  come  to  understand 
that,  where  the  Hebrew  prophets  had  occasionally 
and  sporadically  made  God's  will  prevail  in  a  so- 
called  miracle,  Jesus  of  Nazareth  had  never  failed 
in  invoking  health  and  sustenance.  He  had  cured 
the  most  desperate  diseases  with  the  same  readi- 
ness as  the  mildest;  He  had  blessed  the  poor  food 
and  abundance  had  been  found  to  feed  the  multi- 
tude. Yet  here  she,  Mary  Baker,  lay  on  a  bed  of 
pain  and  in  sore  need  of  means.  Did  God  with- 
hold from  her  His  bounty  because  she  was  a 
sinner  ?  Like  Job,  she  knew  in  her  heart  this  was 
not  true.  Then  where  was  the  fault  and  what  was 
the  law .'' 


ILLUMINATION  AND  BACKWARD  TURNING       77 

Mary  Baker  had  performed  certain  cures  from 
which  she  argued  as  from  the  sure  ground  of  ex- 
perience, but  these  healings  were  incidental  and 
accidental  and  she  scarcely  knew  how  they  had 
occurred  except  that  she  knew  they  had  happened 
when  her  thoughts  were  associated  with  God.  She 
pondered  after  this  fashion:  Laws  of  God  are 
immutable  and  universal.  Then  because  His  laws 
are  so  fixed  and  so  infinitely  operative,  man  by 
studying  them  has  built  up  the  sciences,  as  mathe- 
matics and  mechanics.  But  in  physics  he  is  still 
crying  out  for  the  philosopher's  stone  and  in  medi- 
cine for  the  elixir  of  life.  "I  know  there  is  cause 
and  effect  in  the  spiritual  world  as  in  the  natural ! " 
she  would  exclaim  to  herself.  "I  know  there  is  a 
science  of  health,  a  science  of  life,  a  divine  science,  a 
science  of  God." 

But  it  did  not  enter  Mary  Baker's  mind  in  that 
hour  that  by  this  assertion  she  had  declared  herself 
the  discoverer  of  a  great  truth,  that  by  this  aflBrma- 
tion  of  faith  she  had  pledged  herself  to  find  the  way 
and  prove  what  she  had  declared.  She  was  to  herself 
only  a  woman  in  extremity,  hungering  for  truth. 
In  Portland,  Maine,  was  a  man  whom  she  now 
began  to  endow  with  her  own  faith.  If  she  could 
get  to  him,  she  would  question  him  and  find  out  if 
he  had  come  close  to  God's  heart.  If  he  had,  how 
humbly  she  would  beg  him  to  teach  her  and  guide 
her  and  how  joyfully  would  she  follow !  In  May  of 
1862  she  wrote  a  letter  to  Dr.  Quimby,  a  letter 
which  doubtless  surprised  that  gentleman.  She 
stated  her  confidence  in  his  possession  of  a  philoso- 


78  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

phy  and  that  she  wished  to  come  to  him  to  study  and 
be  healed. 

She  now  began  to  make  preparation  to  visit 
Quimby.  She  requested  her  sister  to  come  to  her 
aid  and  her  sister  responded.  She  rose  from  her 
sick  bed  and  started  on  the  journey  though  she 
accompHshed  it  by  a  somewhat  circuitous  route. 
Mrs.  Patterson  dismissed  with  love  her  blind  servant 
so  long  faithful.  Her  household  goods  were  packed 
up  and  sent  to  Tilton  and  she  returned  with  Abigail 
to  her  home.  On  the  way  to  Tilton  she  explained  to 
her  sister  her  wish  to  visit  Phineas  P.  Quimby ;  but 
Abigail  demurred.  She  said  Quimby  was  a  mesmer- 
ist and  Spiritualist,  a  quack  scientist  who  had 
traveled  around  New  England  with  a  youth  giving 
exhibitions  in  hypnotism. 

'*Why,  Mary,"  she  said,  "how  can  you  desire  to 
visit  such  a  charlatan,  —  you  with  your  mind,  your 
talents,  your  religion,  you  who  have  always  resisted 
these  doctrines  of  animal  magnetism  and  the  pro- 
fessions of  Spiritualism.^" 

"I  certainly  do  not  want  mesmerism  or  Spirit- 
ualism," said  Mary,  "but  I  somehow  believe  that  I 
must  see  what  this  man  has  or  has  not.  I  am  im- 
pelled with  an  unquenchable  thirst  for  God  that 
will  not  let  me  rest.  Abigail,  there  is  a  science  be- 
yond all  sciences  we  have  ever  studied.  It  is  Christ's 
Science.  There  is  a  fundamental  doctrine,  a  God's 
truth  that  will  restore  me  to  health,  and  if  me,  then 
countless  thousands.  Has  this  man  Quimby  dis- 
covered the  great  truth  or  is  he  a  blunderer,  perhaps 
a  charlatan  as  you  say  ?    I  must  know." 


ILLUMINATION  AND  BACKWARD  TURNING      79 

*'Mary,  dear,"  said  her  sister,  "you  are  excitable 
and  intense.  You  have  Hved  so  long  alone  in  the 
hills  reading  and  thinking  you  are  morbid.  You 
should  not  have  been  left  to  yourself  so  long." 

"Then  you  must  go  with  me  to  Portland  to  make 
up  for  neglecting  me.  You  will  go,  won't  you, 
Abigail.?" 

"Indeed  I  will  not,"  cried  the  energetic  Mrs.  Til- 
ton.  "You  shall  go  to  Dr.  Vail's  water-cure  at  Hill, 
which  is  a  respectable  sanitarium.  I  will  hire  you  a 
nurse  and  rent  you  a  cottage  there.  We  shall  see 
what  a  physician  and  hospital  care  can  do  for  you." 

"But  have  I  not  faithfully  taken  medicine  and 
lived  according  to  hygienic  rule  for  years.?"  asked 
Mary.  Then  turning  suddenly  to  her  sister,  she 
asked,  "Abigail,  do  you  doubt  the  power  of  God.?" 

"I  do  not,  but  I  believe  God  helps  those  who 
help  themselves." 

"So  He  does,  sister,  when  they  come  into  harmony 
with  His  law ;  that  I  know,"  answered  Mary  quietly. 

Abigail  Tilton's  words  had  a  way  of  driving  home 
and  sticking  there,  like  arrows  shot  into  a  target. 
She  was  a  woman  of  common  sense  and  she  proposed 
to  exercise  common  sense  now  for  her  sister.  She 
would  hear  nothing  of  Quimby.  When  Mrs.  Tilton 
had  employed  a  young  woman,  named  Susan  Rand, 
to  go  to  Hill  with  Mrs.  Patterson,  had  engaged  a 
conveyance  to  carry  her  there  comfortably,  and  had 
instructed  the  driver  to  be  most  careful  with  his 
charge,  then  she  supplied  her  sister  with  funds 
sufficient  for  her  stay,  felt  that  she  had  performed 
her  duty,  and  washed  her  hands  of  the  event. 


80  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Mrs.  Patterson  arrived  at  the  sanitarium  ex- 
hausted with  the  journey.  The  driver  lifted  her  out 
of  the  carriage  rudely  and  set  her  upon  her  feet  upon 
the  ground.  Mrs.  Patterson  turned  and  sped  up 
the  steps  like  a  deer,  collapsing  in  the  waiting  room 
of  the  hospital.  The  utter  misery  of  that  collapse 
was  like  death  settling  down  upon  her.  Thus  far 
she  had  come  in  her  belief  that  God  was  going  to 
help  her  and  to  help  her  now.  But  here  God 
I  seemed  to  be  forsaking  her.  She  could  only  reiterate 
to  herself  in  gasping  weakness,  "I  know  God  can 
and  will  cure  me,  if  only  I  could  understand  His 
way."  But  she  was  in  the  midst  of  the  doctors  again 
who  believed  in  quite  different  agencies.  She  must 
now  submit  to  the  water-cure,  the  fad  of  the  period. 

They  carried  her  to  one  of  the  little  cottages  and 
instructed  her  attendant  in  the  system  of  nursing 
prevailing  at  the  water-cure.  For  several  weeks  the 
treatment  was  continued  with  little  result.  Mrs. 
Tilton's  common  sense  was  failing  its  purpose  once 
more.  Then  Mary  Baker  asserted  her  family 
spirit.  She  had.  wanted  to  go  to  Portland  to  see 
Quimby,  and  she  determined  she  would  go  without 
further  discussion.  She  wrote  him  in  August  that 
she  would  try  to  come  to  him,  though  she  could  sit 
up  but  for  a  few  minutes  at  a  time,  and  she  asked 
him  if  he  thought  she  would  be  able  to  reach  him 
without  sinking  from  the  effects  of  the  journey. 
Quimby  replied  so  encouragingly  that  she  completed 
her  arrangements. 

Mrs.  Patterson  arrived  at  the  International 
Hotel,  Portland,  in  October,   1862.     Here  in  this 


ILLUMINATION  AND  BACKWARD  TURNING       81 

hotel  Dr.  Quimby,  doctor  by  courtesy  only,  had  his 
offices.  In  his  reception  room  his  patients  gathered 
and  sat  by  the  hour,  talking  and  visiting,  discussing 
the  doctor's  sayings  and  their  own  illnesses.  And 
in  this  reception  room  on  the  morning  in  October, 
when  Mrs.  Patterson  arrived,  were  a  number  of 
patients  together  with  his  son  George,  a  young  man 
scarcely  turned  twenty-one,  who  then  acted  as  his 
father's   secretary. 

Mrs.  Patterson  was  assisted  up  the  stairs  to  this 
room  and  her  extreme  feebleness  was  marked  by  all. 
Dr.  Quimby  came  from  his  inner  office  to  receive  the 
new  patient  and  she  beheld  for  the  first  time  the 
man  she  believed  a  great  physician.  He  was  of  small 
physique,  with  white  hair  and  beard,  level  brows, 
and  shrewd,  penetrating  eyes.  He  was  healthy, 
dominant,  energetic.  He  had  the  eye  of  the  born 
hypnotizer,  the  man  who  can  persuade  other  wills  to 
obey  his  own,  especially  the  wills  of  the  sick  and 
mentally  disordered.  But  his  face  was  kindly  and 
his  expression  sincere. 

Mary  Baker  was  at  that  time  a  frail  shadow  of  a 
woman,  an  abstracted  student,  given  to  much 
thinking  and  prayer.  With  great  blue  eyes,  deep 
sunk,  yet  arched  above  with  beautiful  brows,  she 
looked  into  the  friendly  face  bent  above  her  and  she 
looked  with  the  deep  intense  gaze  of  the  seer. 


CHAPTER    VII 

THE  APOTHEOSIS   OF  A   HYPNOTIST 

IN  order  to  understand  what  sort  of  meeting  it  was 
which  took  place  between  the  emaciated  sufferer 
and  invaUd,  Mary  Baker,  and  the  mesmeric  healer, 
Phineas  Quimby,  at  the  International  Hotel  in 
Portland,  Maine,  in  October,  1862,  it  is  necessary  to 
survey  briefly  the  latter' s  life  and  work  up  to  this 
period. 

Quimby  was  the  son  of  a  poor  blacksmith  and 
was  apprenticed  as  a  lad  to  a  clock-maker.  He  had 
no  schooling  and  grew  up  illiterate  but  industrious 
and  honest.  He  made  with  his  own  hands  hundreds 
of  clocks  and  having  his  interest  thus  awakened  in 
mechanics,  tinkered  with  small  inventions,  and  is 
said  to  have  perfected  a  number  of  tools,  especially 
a  hand- saw.  Part  of  the  time  he  earned  his  living 
making  daguerreotypes. 

Thus  he  lived  until  he  was  thirty-six  years  old,  a 
nervous,  shrewd  little  man  with  a  piercing  black 
eye  and  determined  mouth.  He  was  argumentative 
and  somewhat  combative,  inquiring,  inventive,  and 
doggedly  determined.  These  traits  were  partially 
due  to  lack  of  education ;  to  him  an  axiom  was  not  a 
self-evident  proposition;  he  refused  to  accept  any- 
thing as  a  truth  unless  he  could  experiment  with  it 
and  prove  it  for  himself.    He  was  not  religious,  but 


THE  APOTHEOSIS  OF  A  HYPNOTIST  83 

a  man  of  good  morals  and  of  a  kindly  nature,  always 
ready  to  help  his  neighbor. 

In  1838  Charles  Poyen,  the  French  hypnotist, 
visited  Belfast,  Maine,  Quimby's  home  town,  where 
he  gave  a  course  of  lectures  on  mesmerism  with  illus- 
trative experiments.  At  his  first  exhibition  in  the 
town  hall  his  efforts  were  something  of  a  failure,  and 
he  declared  that  some  one  in  the  audience  perverted 
the  hypnotic  influence.  He  invited  whomsoever  it 
was  to  remain  and  meet  him  after  the  others  had 
gone.  The  man  who  remained  was  *'Park" 
Quimby,  as  the  townspeople  called  him.  Poyen 
talked  w  ith  him  and  assured  him  that  he  had  extraor- 
dinaiy  hypnotic  powders  which,  if  developed,  would 
make  him  an  adept  in  mesmerism.  Quimby  was 
gratified  and  absorbingly  interested.  He  at  once 
began  to  experiment  on  his  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances, and  whenever  he  found  a  willing  subject  tried 
to  put  him  into  a  mesmeric  sleep.  As  he  was  very 
often  successful  in  these  efforts,  people  began  to  talk 
about  him  and  if  any  one  in  the  town  did  an  eccen- 
tric thing,  or  had  a  mishap,  the  gossips  said  with 
waggish  appreciation,  "Park  Quimby  has  mesmer- 
ized him." 

His  townsmen  came  to  believe  Quimby  could 
compel  a  man  to  come  in  from  the  street  by  fixing  his 
eye  on  him;  and  nothing  more  greatly  entertained 
the  villagers  than  to  assist  at  such  an  exhibition  at 
the  corner  store.  Quimby's  method  of  hypnotizing 
at  this  time  was  to  fix  his  eyes  in  a  concentrated  gaze 
upon  his  subject.  If  he  wished  thoroughly  to  mes- 
merize the  subject,  that  is,  to  put  him  to  sleep,  he 


84  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

would  make  passes  across  the  subject's  forehead, 
continuing  his  strokes  down  the  shoulders  and  the 
length  of  the  arms,  shaking  his  hands  after  every 
pass.  His  subjects  professed  to  thrill  and  tingle  as 
though  electric  currents  had  passed  through  them, 
and  some  of  them  would  perform  Quimby's  hyp- 
notic commands,  however  absurd  they  might  be. 
Quimby  soon  found  an  unusually  good  subject  in  a 
youth  named  Lucius  Burkmar.  As  his  experiments 
with  this  young  man  absorbed  his  interest  and  at- 
tracted considerable  attention,  he  abandoned  his 
workshop  and  devoted  himself  to  mesmerism. 

In  his  clock-tinkering  days  in  Belfast,  Park 
Quimby  had  been  regarded  as  eccentric,  and  his 
home  town  now  thought  him  quite  mad  in  his  new 
role.  A  few  persons  took  him  seriously  and  sought 
to  have  him  cure  minor  illnesses,  but  more  often  he 
was  derided,  and  sometimes  even  condemned  as  an 
infidel.  Not  appreciated  at  home,  he  left  Belfast, 
taking  Burkmar  with  him,  and  together  they  gave 
exhibitions  in  other  towns  where  he  was  not  so  well 
known  to  his  audiences  and  could  command  greater 
respect  for  his  hypnotic  feats.  These  are  said  often 
to  have  been  so  startling  as  to  frighten  susceptible 
persons,  arousing  in  them  suspicion  of  witchcraft  and 
magic.  More  than  once  on  his  travels  he  stirred  up 
a  mob  from  which  he  and  Burkmar  had  to  escape 
by  taking  to  their  heels. 

Wonder-working  soon  proving  not  entirely  agree- 
able as  a  method  of  earning  a  living,  Quimby  re- 
turned to  Belfast  and  settled  down  in  his  workshop 
again  until  another  mesmerist  visited  the  town  in  the 


THE  APOTHEOSIS  OF  A  HYPNOTIST  85 

person  of  John  Bovee  Dods.  Dods  was  the  author 
of  a  book  which  was  published  in  1850.  It  contained 
ideas  he  had  taught  for  twenty  years  and  was  entitled 
"The  Philosophy  of  Electrical  Psychology."  He 
gave  public  lectures  in  Belfast,  exchanged  ideas  with 
Quimby,  and  took  into  his  employ  Quimby's  subject, 
the  lad  Burkmar.  When  Burkmar  returned  from 
his  trip  with  Dods,  Quimby  again  employed  him 
and  found  that  Dods  had  been  using  him  to  read 
clairvoyantly  the  minds  of  patients  and  influencing 
him  to  prescribe  expensive  remedies  which  Dods 
manufactured. 

Quimby  thought  that  overreaching,  and  when 
Burkmar  diagnosed  cases  for  him,  he  influenced  him 
to  prescribe  simple  herbs.  These  remedies  appeared 
to  effect  cures  as  well  as  the  higher-priced  ones  and 
Quimby  began  to  believe  that  it  was  not  the  medi- 
cine that  was  doing  the  curing  but  the  patient's 
confidence  in  the  doctor  or  medium.  This  was  a  de- 
cided step  in  a  progression  of  reasoning  which,  had 
he  possessed  the  mental  equipment,  might  have 
carried  him  into  the  realm  of  psychological  discov- 
ery. He  was  working  honestly  and  cautiously,  how- 
ever, and  so  accomplished  a  modicum  of  success  as  a 
magnetic  healer.  He  first  abandoned  medicines  and 
second,  dismissing  the  subject  he  had  so  long  relied 
upon,  began  to  sit  directly  with  his  patients,  for  he 
had  discovered  his  own  clairvoyant  ability  to  read 
his  patient's  thoughts  or  induce  him  to  tell  "all  his 
sensations."  His  cures  were  in  part  accomplished 
by  directing  the  patient's  thoughts  to  another  part  of 
the  body  from  that  supposed  to  be  affected.    Thus  a 


86  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

boil  on  the  back  of  the  neck  became  a  toothache  at 
his  suggestion.  He  rubbed  the  heads  of  his  pa- 
tients and  otherwise  manipulated  their  bodies,  be- 
lieving in  his  personal  magnetism  as  the  important 
part  of  the  curative  agency. 

In  relieving  the  sick  of  their  pains  he  found  that 
he  took  their  conditions  upon  himself,  and  he  often 
related  how  he  had  to  go  into  his  garden  and  hoe 
vigorously,  or  to  his  woodpile  and  saw  wood  most 
industriously,  to  get  rid  of  rheumatic  pains  or  agues, 
and  to  reestablish  his  own  equilibrium  and  recharge 
himself  with  electric  currents ;  for  Quimby  was  never 
all  his  life  rid  of  the  influence  of  Dods  and  his  theo- 
ries of  transmission  of  human  electricity.  Quimby 
is  said  to  have  cured  cases  of  chronic  disease  of  long 
standing  and  to  have  secured  a  worthier  reputation 
than  when  working  wonders  with  Lucius  Burkmar. 
He  now  began  to  travel  about  New  England  again 
and  issued  circulars  advertising  himself  far  and 
wide  as  a;  healer  with  a  new  theory.  Avidity  for  the 
mysterious  in  the  rural  mind  carried  these  circulars 
to  the  remotest  hamlets.  A  curious  account  of  his 
statements  as  to  himself  and  his  methods  appeared 
in  the  Bangor  Jeffersonian  in  1857.  It  was  headed, 
*'A  New  Doctrine  of  Health  and  Disease,"  and  it 
said  in  part: 

A  gentleman  of  Belfast,  Dr.  Phineas  P.  Quimby, 
who  was  remarkably  successful  as  an  experimenter 
in  mesmerism  some  sixteen  years  ago,  and  has  con- 
tinued his  investigations  in  psychology,  has  dis- 
covered and  in  his  daily  practise  carries  out,  a  new 
principle  in  the  treatment  of  disease. 


THE  APOTHEOSIS  OF  A  HYPNOTIST  87 

His  theory  is  that  the  mind  gives  immediate 
form  to  the  animal  spirit  and  that  the  animal  spirit 
gives  form  to  the  body  as  soon  as  the  less  plastic 
elements  of  the  body  are  able  to  assume  that  form. 
Therefore,  his  first  course  in  the  treatment  of  a 
patient  is  to  sit  down  beside  him  and  put  himself 
en  rapport  with  him,  which  he  does  without  pro- 
ducing the  mesmeric  sleep. 

He  says  that  in  every  disease  the  animal  spirit, 
or  spiritual  form,  is  somewhat  disconnected  from 
the  body,  that  it  imparts  to  him  all  its  grief  and  the 
cause  of  it,  which  may  have  been  mental  trouble 
or  shock  to  the  body,  as  over  fatigue,  excessive  cold 
or  heat,  etc.  This  impresses  the  mind  with  anxiety 
and  the  mind  reacting  upon  the  body  produces 
disease.  With  this  spirit  form  Dr.  Quimby  con- 
verses and  endeavors  to  win  it  away  from  its  grief, 
and  when  he  has  succeeded  in  doing  so,  it  disap- 
pears and  reunites  with  the  body.  Thus  is  com- 
menced the  first  step  toward  recovery.  This  union 
frequently  lasts  but  a  short  time  when  the  spirit 
again  appears,  exhibiting  some  new  phase  of  its 
trouble.  With  this  he  again  persuades  and  con- 
tends until  he  overcomes  it,  when  it  disappears  as 
before.  Thus  two  shades  of  trouble  have  disap- 
peared from  the  mind  and  consequently  from  the 
animal  spirit,  and  the  body  already  has  commenced 
its  efforts  to  come  into  a  state  in  accordance  with 
them. 

In  1859  Quimby  went  to  Portland,  Maine,  and 
remained  there  until  the  summer  of  1865.  During 
this  period  he  had  many  patients  and  performed  a 
number  of  cures.  His  hypnotic  practise  now  seems 
to  have  changed  its  form  to  a  large  extent,  notwith- 
standing he  manipulated  his  patients  always  and 


88  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

this  seems  to  have  been  the  feature  upon  which  he 
laid  the  greatest  stress.  But  he  now  embeUished 
these  magnetic  treatments  with  conversation,  en- 
deavoring to  account  for  the  origin  of  disease  in 
opinions  and  notions,  oscillating  between  weirdly 
speculative  and  practical  points  of  view  and  no- 
where confining  himself  to  stringent  definition. 

It  was  expedient  to  survey  Quimby's  life  up  to 
this  point  and  it  is  now  necessary  to  arrive  at  a  clear 
conception  of  what  sort  of  thinker  he  was.  Unless 
we  are  quite  clear  here,  we  shall  stray  into  a  quag- 
mire and  find  ourselves  believing  that  all  that  follows 
in  the  life  of  Mary  Baker  Eddy  was  the  result  of  her 
meeting  with  this  man.  This  argument  is  advanced 
only  by  those  who  have  a  vague  and  confused  idea  of 
Quimby.  Its  claims  are  these :  that  Quimby  cured 
Mary  Baker  of  her  invalidism,  that  he  gave  her  the 
germ  ideas  of  her  philosophy,  that  he  presented  her 
with  manuscripts  which  she  afterwards  claimed  as 
her  own,  that  he  focussed  her  mind,  that  he  was  the 
impetus  of  all  her  subsequent  momentum.  Were 
these  contentions  just,  none  but  a  perfidious  ingrate 
would  deny  them.  But  not  to  deny  them,  circum- 
stantially and  in  totality,  is  to  leave  open  the  gate 
to  the  quagmire  that  Christian  Science  is  mesmerism 
religionized.  For  to  interpret  Mary  Baker  Eddy  and 
Christian  Science  by  Quimbyism  is  to  lose  sight  for- 
ever of  the  unique  and  powerful  significance  of  her 
life. 

Summarizing  Quimby,  therefore,  it  may  be  stated 
that  though  he  was  no  scientist,  he  w^as  trained  by 
over    twenty   years'   experience  in   practising  mes- 


THE  APOTHEOSIS  OF  A  HYPNOTIST  89 

merism  and  without  knowing  it  was  really  a  remark- 
able hypnotist.  It  would  have  been  very  extraor- 
dinary if  from  his  quarter  of  a  century's  experience 
in  mesmerism,  clairvoyance,  and  magnetism  he  had 
not  reduced  his  observations  to  some  sort  of  phi- 
losophy however  crude  and  empirical.  Though  he 
liked  to  call  it  his  wisdom,  what  he  actually  attained 
was  a  jumble  of  reasoning  which  even  he  did  not 
understand.  He  combated  with  vigor  and  manli- 
ness sickly  ideas  in  the  minds  of  his  patients,  but  his 
healthy  physical  presence,  not  philosophy,  did  the 
work.  Saturated  with  Poyen's  theories  of  mesmer- 
ism and  Dods'  doctrines  of  electrical  currents,  he 
was  forever  trying  to  convey  something  of  himself  to 
his  patients,  some  subtle  fluid  or  invisible  essence. 
He  never  eliminated  his  personality. 

Quimby  was  not  even  a  religious  man.  He  habit- 
ually and  stoutly  denied  the  Messianic  mission  of 
Jesus,  declaring  that  Jesus  was  a  healer  and  never 
intended  to  establish  a  religion.  His  notion  of  the 
Creator  was  confused  with  ideas  of  nature,  and  he  is 
said  to  have  called  God  the  Great  Mesmerizer  or 
Magnet.  Possessing  neither  education  nor  the  least 
training  in  philosophic  thinking,  and  having  no  real 
religious  faith,  this  man  was  ill-equipped  for  stating 
a  philosophy.  Moreover,  his  belief  in  his  personal 
magnetism  blocked  the  way  for  forming  a  sound  phil- 
osophic doctrine,  even  if  his  lack  of  cultivation  had 
been  modified  by  reading  and  scholarly  association. 

Quimby  has  been  delineated  that  he  may  have  his 
due,  —  Quimby  the  illiterate  mesmerist,  Quimby 
the  blundering  and  stumbling  reasoner,  Quimby  the 


90  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

kindly,  sympathetic  healer,  above  all,  Quimby  the 
unconscious  hypnotizer.  Ignorance  will  cover  all 
his  errors,  good  intentions  all  his  accomplishments. 
He  would  never  have  claimed  to  have  originated 
anything  had  he  known  all  there  was  to  be  known  of 
Mesmer.  Quimbyism  was  but  an  excrescence  on  the 
natural  growth  of  mental  suggestion  from  Mesmer  to 
the  Nancy  school.  Quimbyism  is  not  embryonic 
Christian  Science;  it  is  merely  Mesmerism  gone 
astray. 

When  Mary  Baker  entered  Mr.  Quimby's  office 
he  sat  down  beside  her,  as  was  his  custom  with  his 
patients,  to  get  into  the  sympathetic  and  clairvoyant 
relation  with  her  nature  which  he  called  rapport. 
Gazing  fixedly  into  her  eyes,  he  told  her,  as  he  had 
told  others,  that  she  was  held  in  bondage  by  the 
opinions  of  her  family  and  physicians,  that  her 
animal  spirit  was  reflecting  its  grief  upon  her  body 
and  calling  it  spinal  disease.  He  then  wet  his  hands 
in  a  basin  of  water  and  violently  rubbed  her  head, 
declaring  that  in  this  manner  he  imparted  healthy 
electricity.  Gradually  he  wrought  the  spell  of 
hypnotism,  and  under  that  suggestion  she  let  go  the 
burden  of  pain  just  as  she  would  have  done  had 
morphine  been  administered.  The  relief  was  no 
doubt  tremendous.  Her  gratitude  certainly  was 
unbounded.  She  was  set  free  from  the  excruciating 
pain  of  years.  Quimby  himself  was  amazed  at  her 
sudden  healing ;  no  less  was  he  amazed  at  the  inter- 
pretation she  immediately  placed  upon  it,  that  it  had 
been  accomplished  by  Quimby's  mediatorship  be- 
tween herself  and  God. 


THE  APOTHEOSIS  OF  A  HYPNOTIST  91 

She  had  come  to  Quimby  prepared  to  find  him  a 
saint  who  healed  by  virtue  of  his  rehgious  wisdom, 
and  as  soon  as  she  met  him  she  completed  her  men- 
tal picture,  endowing  him  with  her  own  faith.  Thus 
the  hypnotist  had  almost  nothing  to  do.  Her  faith 
returned  upon  her,  flooding  her  with  radiance,  heal- 
ing her  of  her  pain.  The  modest  mesmerist  was 
astonished  at  the  faith  he  believed  himself  to  have 
evoked.  It  covered  him  with  confusion  to  have  her 
religious  emotion,  engendered  by  years  of  suffering, 
ascribe  to  him  a  spiritual  nature  which  he  knew  he 
did  not  possess. 

Mrs.  Patterson's  case  struck  Quimby  as  one  of 
his  most  remarkable  cures.  He  watched  with  in- 
terest for  her  return  on  the  following  day  and  his 
gratification  was  equal  to  her  gratitude  when  he 
found  that  she  was  apparently  in  the  same  radiant 
condition  of  well-being  as  when  she  stood  erect  the 
day  before  and  said  she  was  well.  However,  he 
again  administered  his  mesmeric  treatment,  stroking 
her  head,  shoulders,  and  back,  until  she  declared 
she  felt  as  if  standing  on  an  electric  battery. 

"It  is  not  magnetism  that  does  this  work,  doctor," 
she  declared.  "You  have  no  need  to  touch  me,  nor 
disorder  my  hair  with  your  mesmeric  passes." 

"What  then  do  you  think  does  the  healing.?"  he 
asked. 

"Your  knowledge  of  God's  law,  your  understand- 
ing of  the  truth  which  Christ  brought  into  the  world 
and  which  had  been  lost  for  ages." 

Quimby  sat  abashed.  He  was  not  religious,  wor- 
shipful, or  reverent,  but  he  caught  at  the  wonder  of 


92  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

this  idea,  the  glory  of  it,  and  vaguely  conceived  the 
renown  of  it.  He  stumbled,  however,  in  his  first 
step  to  the  pedestal  of  a  greatness  which  he  knew 
was  not  his. 

*'I  see  what  you  mean,"  he  said  musingly,  "that 
Christ  has  come  into  the  world  again;  but  in  that 
case  I  must  be  John  and  you  Jesus." 

Delicate  religious  apprehension  and  clear  mental 
acumen  developed  by  years  of  prayer,  study,  and 
discussion  had  fitted  Mary  Baker's  mind  to  meet 
such  a  statement.  She  took  instant  umbrage  at  the 
startling  irreverence. 

"That  is  blasphemy,"  she  declared  quietly,  and 
Quimby's  eyes,  already  half  whimsical  over  his  ten- 
tative remark,  dropped  before  hers.  He  became 
instantly  serious,  and  said : 

"I  did  n't  mean  it  so ;  I  don't  understand  the  way 
you  explain  your  cure.  No  one  before  ever  believed 
it  was  divine  truth  that  operated  through  me.  They 
have  said  I  healed  through  some  mysterious  force  in 
myself.  I  have  told  them  it  was  healthy  electrical 
currents  together  with  my  'Wisdom'  that  I  imparted 
which  effected  the  cure.  But  the  faith  in  Christ 
which  you  declare  enables  me  to  heal  I  have  not. 
It  makes  me  think  it  is  your  faith  in  Christ  that  heals 
you,  and  all  I  can  do  is  to  acknowledge  it.  If  the 
spirit  of  Christ  is  with  you  and  I  acknowledge  it, 
then  I  bear  the  relation  to  you  of  John  to  Jesus." 

As  is  very  well  known  to-day  the  subject  under 
hypnosis  reveals  the  inner  recesses  of  his  mind  and 
gives  up  to  the  hypnotizer  the  thoughts  of  years. 
Mrs.  Patterson  remained  for  three  weeks  in  Port- 


THE  APOTHEOSIS  OF  A  HYPNOTIST  93 

land  and  was  daily  at  Mr.  Quimby's  office.  Quimby 
always  spoke  of  her  as  a  remarkable  woman  and 
would  daily  question  her  as  to  her  understanding  of 
her  cure.  She  regarded  him  with  the  enthusiasm 
one  rescued  from  drowning  feels  for  the  swimmer 
who  has  brought  him  to  shore.  She  continually  in- 
vested his  mind  with  her  own  ideas.  He  was  eag-er 
to  take  advantage  of  her  superior  mental  qualifica- 
tions to  add  something  to  his  "Wisdom,"  and  he 
would  converse  with  her  by  the  hour  for  that  purpose. 

"You  say  there  is  a  principle  which  governs  the 
healing,"  he  would  remark.  "Now  what  do  you 
think  that  principle  is.^" 

"I  think  it  is  God,"  she  would  reply.  "You 
should  understand,  Dr.  Quimby,  much  better  than  I 
that  this  is  not  your  magnetism  or  your  wisdom  but 
God's  truth.  I  try  to  understand  my  cure  every  day, 
but  I  am  still  confused.  You  should  make  clear 
statements  concerning  your  understanding  of  this 
truth  for  your  patients'  sake,  not  in  scribbled  notes, 
but  in  a  developed  argument  summed  up  in  a  treatise. 
You  demonstrate  truth  when  you  heal,  but  do  you 
analyze  your  processes  .'^ " 

"I  do  not  understand  entirely  what  I  do,"  the 
doctor  would  say;  "so  how  can  I  make  the  patient 
understand.^" 

"But  there  can  be  no  science  of  health  until  the 
laws  can  be  stated,"  Mary  Baker  would  reply.  "If 
this  is  a  philosophy  it  can  be  reduced  to  philosophic 
arguments.  This  is  a  very  spiritual  doctrine,  the 
eternal  years  of  God  are  with  it,  and  it  must  be 
stated  so  that  it  will  stand  firm  as  the  Rock  of  Ages." 


94  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Such  portentous  appreciation  greatly  excited  the 
ambition  of  Quimby.  He  desired  to  measure  up  to 
this  conception  of  himself  and  his  work.  But  he  had 
not  the  sUghtest  notion  of  how  to  set  about  reducing 
a  history  of  his  cures  to  a  science.  He  gathered  from 
Mrs.  Patterson's  conversation  that  he  should  write 
something,  and  perhaps  with  a  quite  innocent  idea 
of  copying  a  model  he  asked  her  to  write  something 
out  first.  For  this  purpose  he  gave  her  some  notes 
he  had  made,  commenting  on  the  symptoms  of  recent 
patients.  She  took  these  to  her  boarding-house  and 
occupied  several  days  striving  to  piece  them  into  an 
essay. 

Her  efforts  were  not  a  brilliant  success.  His  pen- 
ciled thoughts  continually  contradicted  themselves 
and  not  only  themselves,  they  directly  contradicted 
her  conception  of  her  own  cure  or  any  other  she  had 
known  of.  When  Mrs.  Patterson  talked  with 
Quimby,  he  did  not  contradict  her;  on  the  contrary, 
he  quickly  adopted  both  her  language  and  ideas; 
but  such  words  as  science,  principle,  truth,  inserted 
at  random  in  his  subsequent  notes,  found  no  place  in 
his  jumble  of  theories  and  produced  an  extraordinary 
result.  As  an  example  of  this  result,  the  following 
quotation  is  said  to  be  from  Quimby's  pencil : 

I  will  now  try  to  establish  this  science  or  rock, 
and  upon  it  I  will  build  the  science  of  life.  My 
foundation  is  animal  matter  or  life.  This  set  in 
action  by  wisdom  produces  thought.  Thoughts, 
like  grains  of  sand,  are  held  together  by  their  own 
sympathy,  wisdom  or  attraction.  Now  man  is 
composed  of  these  particles  of  matter,  or  thought. 


THE  APOTHEOSIS  OF  A  HYPNOTIST  95 

combined  and  arranged  by  wisdom.  As  thought 
is  always  changing,  so  man  is  always  throwing  off 
particles  of  thought  and  receiving  others.  Thus 
man  is  a  progressive  idea ;  yet  he  is  the  same  man, 
although  he  is  changing  all  the  time  for  better  or 
for  worse.  As  his  senses  are  in  his  wisdom,  and 
his  wisdom  is  attached  to  his  idea  or  body,  his 
change  of  mind  is  under  one  of  the  two.  directions 
either  of  this  world  of  opinions  or  of  God  or  Science, 
and  his  happiness  or  misery  is  the  result  of  his 
wisdom. 

Though  Mary  Baker's  own  pure  stream  of  re- 
Hgious  thought  wrought  such  confusion  to  Quimby's 
materialistic  theories  as  to  make  his  utterances  sound 
like  philosophy  gone  mad,  her  cure,  whether  a  tem- 
porary one  wrought  under  hypnotism,  or  a  perma- 
nent one  achieved  through  a  momentary  realization 
of  God,  was  secure.  She  consistently  maintained 
that  God  was  the  "wisdom"  Quimby  brought  to  his 
patients.  Quimby  never  told  her  so,  and  the  hypno- 
tist to-day  would  say  that  Quimby  may  have  allowed 
her  to  hypnotize  herself  with  that  thought.  How- 
ever that  may  be,  by  seeing  God  as  the  principle  of 
her  cure,  she  stood  safe  on  her  own  foundation,  laid 
in  the  years  of  orthodox  religious  experience,  though 
she  was  not  to  understand  this  until  Quimby  the 
hypnotizer  lay  in  his  grave. 

Quimby  really  seemed  to  desire  to  adopt  the  idea 
of  bringing  God  to  his  patients  and  would  declare 
with  all  the  wisdom  he  had  that  God  was  the  great 
mesmerizer.  Continuing  to  mesmerize  his  patients, 
he  began  to  occupy  the  position  of  a  lesser  god  in 
the  minds  of  many  who  gathered  round  him.    They 


96  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

quickly  took  up  this  idea  of  God  as  the  great 
mesmerizer,  and  Quimby  in  a  sense  became  His 
representative.  When  Quimby,  "condensing  his 
identity,"  would  visit  them  in  waking  hours  of  the 
night,  or  when  they  had  returned  to  their  homes, 
it  was  to  them  the  shadow  of  the  Almighty.  This 
produced  hypnotism  more  absolute  than  anything 
Quimby  had  hitherto  dreamed  of.  It  quite  appreci- 
ably increased  his  success  as  a  healer.  Though  he 
acquired  the  idea  of  God  as  the  healer  from  Mary 
Baker,  he  reversed  it  and  made  of  the  Supreme 
Being  a  necromancer. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

THE   MYSTERY   OF  THE   QUIMBY  MANUSCRffTS 

THROUGH  the  writings  of  Mary  Baker  on  what 
she  thought  Quimby  beUeved,  "Quimbyism" 
and  Quimby  manuscripts  came  to  have  a  factitious 
existence.  Her  writings  were  given  into  Quimby's 
keeping  and  were  doubtless  copied  by  other  patients ; 
her  explanations  of  his  cures  w^ere  often  accepted 
instead  of  Quimby's,  even  Quimby  himself  accept- 
ing them  in  part,  flattered  at  the  interpretation  put 
upon  him  and  his  work.  A  curious  commingling  of 
mesmerism  and  religious  faith  resulted  from  the 
association  of  these  distinctly  differing  minds,  and 
the  manuscripts  handed  from  one  to  another  per- 
petuated this  confusion. 

Mary  Baker  dwelt  long  under  the  influence  of 
Quimby's  mesmeric  belief  and  it  came  to  have  a 
great,  though  not  supreme,  significance  in  her  later 
teaching,  the  significance  of  a  counterfeit  of  the 
truth  she  was  later  to  discover  and  proclaim. 
From  1862  to  1866  were  for  her  so  many  years  in 
the  wilderness,  after  which  came  that  search  for 
the  mountain  which  was  to  be  her  Horeb,  and 
which  had  first  been  shown  her  by  illumination 
when  in  Rumney  she  healed  the  child  of  blindness. 
A  sublime  faith  held  her  firmly  through  this  period 
of  confusion  as  it  did  through  subsequent  travail 


98  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

of  spirit,  but  the  confusion,  temporarily  wrought  in 
her,  induced  her  to  give  honor  where  honor  was 
not  due. 

In  later  years,  roused  by  the  assault  of  critics 
hostile  to  her  restatements  of  Christ's  teachings, 
Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  fearlessly  of  her  confused  condi- 
tion at  this  period.  She  related  how  for  years  she 
struggled  with  the  effects  of  Dr.  Quimby's  practise, 
acknowledging  that  she  had  written  and  talked  of 
him  with  ignorant  enthusiasm  until  she  realized  the 
harmful  influence  of  teaching  such  *'a  false  human 
concept."     She  said: 

It  has  always  been  my  misfortune  to  think  peo- 
ple bigger  and  better  than  they  really  are.  My 
mistake  is  to  endow  another  person  with  my  ideal 
and  then  to  make  him  think  it  his  own.  ...  I  would 
touch  tenderly  his  [Quimby's]  memory,  speak  rev- 
erently of  his  humane  purpose,  and  name  only  his 
virtues,  did  not  this  man  [Julius  Dresser]  drive  me 
for  conscience's  sake  to  sketch  the  facts.  ...  I 
was  ignorant  of  the  basis  of  animal  magnetism 
twenty  years  ago,  but  know  now  that  it  would  dis- 
grace and  invalidate  any  mode  of  medicine.  The 
animal  poison  imparted  through  mortal  mind  by 
false  or  incorrect  mental  physicians,  is  more  de- 
structive to  health  and  morals  than  are  the  mineral 
and  vegetable  poisons  prescribed  by  the  matter 
physicians.  ...  I  denounced  it  [Quimby's  method] 
after  a  few  of  my  first  students  rubbed  the  heads 
of  their  patients  and  the  immorality  of  one  student 
opened  my  eyes  to  the  horrors  possible  in  animal 
magnetism.  I  discovered  the  Science  of  Mind  heal- 
ing and  that  was  enough.  It  was  the  way  Christ 
had  pointed  out;    and  that  had  glorified  it.     My 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  QUIMBY  MANUSCRIPTS     99 

discovery  promises   nothing   but  blessing  to   every 
inhabitant  that  walks  the  globe.^ 

The  confusion  of  her  ideas  with  Quimby's  in  her 
early  writings,  which  were  widely  copied  and  cir- 
culated, gave  rise  to  the  Quimby  manuscript  tra- 
dition. This  tradition  grew  into  a  controversy 
which  deserves  some  explication,  lest,  in  treating  it 
as  negligible,  a  fabulous  fame  of  incongruous  origin 
shall  be  perpetuated.  The  existence  of  writings  of 
any  consequence  which  are  veritable  Quimby  manu- 
scripts would  be  negligible  were  it  not  for  the  pos- 
sible confusion  of  them  with  Mary  Baker's  writings. 
Veritable  Quimby  manuscripts  are  absolutely  hypo- 
thetical, as  hypothetical  as  was  the  inheritance  of 
Mme.  Therese  Humbert  of  Paris.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  credit  for  an  enormous  sum  was 
secured  for  a  period  of  over  twenty  years  by  the 
Humbert  family  on  a  basis  of  nothing.  Nay,  not 
upon  nothing.  Mme.  Humbert  had  a  copy  of  a  will, 
and  she  had  an  affidavit  from  a  notary  that  securi- 
ties representing  the  property  she  claimed  to  be 
heir  to  were  sealed  in  a  strong  box  and  held  for  her 
in  the  safe  of  a  bank.  When  the  court  finally  ordered 
this  strong  box  opened,  it  was  found  that  there  were 
not  securities  for  twenty  millions,  but  there  were  one 
thousand  dollars,  a  few  copper  coins,  and  a  brass 
button.  Eleven  millions  had  been  advanced  on  this 
absurd  basis. 

The  Quimby  claim  is  a  purely  intellectual  one 
and   the   credit   secured   has   been   an   extravagant 

*  Christian  Science  Journal,  June,  1887. 


100  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

belief,  a  belief  which  provokes  unjust  and  invidi- 
ous suspicion  as  to  the  origin  of  the  fundamental 
principles  of  Christian  Science.  To  show  how  base- 
less is  this  suspicion,  it  is  necessary  to  examine  the 
Quimby  claim. 

Some  twenty  years  after  Quimby's  death  (which 
resulted  from  a  tumor  of  the  stomach  in  1866), 
when  Christian  Science  had  been  placed  on  a  firm 
foundation,  it  began  to  be  contended  by  Quimby's 
son  and  a  former  patient  of  Quimby  that  he  had  left 
manuscripts  on  a  number  of  subjects,  setting  forth 
a  system  of  philosophy.  Jealously  guarding  the 
proof  of  his  claim,  the  son,  by  indirect  assertion, 
implies  as  his  reason  for  not  publishing  the  alleged 
manuscripts  that  their  authorship  would  be  claimed 
by  the  author  of  "Science  and  Health"  if  he  pub- 
lished them  during  her  lifetime. 

This  is  a  rather  strange  suggestion,  but  it  sets 
forth  the  shadow  of  a  fear  justified  by  circum- 
stances. It  has  been  shown  that  Mrs.  Patterson  in 
1862  wrote  certain  manuscripts  for  Quimby  and 
gave  them  to  him.  She  repeated  this  generous,  if 
unprofitable,  act  in  the  early  part  of  1864,  when  she 
spent  two  or  three  months  in  an  uninterrupted 
effort  to  fathom  and  elucidate  "Quimbyism."  It 
seems  almost  incredible  that  a  woman  of  her  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  development  should  have  de- 
voted so  long  a  period  to  the  struggle  of  formulating 
a  philosophy  out  of  the  chaotic  but  dogmatic  utter- 
ances of  this  self-taught  mesmerist.  But  there  was 
a  deep-lying  reason  for  this  long  struggle,  which  was 
bound  to  end  in  dire  failure,  and  the  reason  both  for 


THE   MYSTERY  OF  THE  QUIMBY  MANUSCRIPTS    101 

the  struggle  and  for  the  failure  could  only  be  made 
known  to  her  by  the  extraordinary  and  impressive 
circumstance  of  an  original  discovery. 

As  the  deviation  of  the  needle  from  the  true  North 
caused  mariners  to  investigate  for  centuries  the  cause 
of  deflection  until  the  eminent  scientist,  Lord  Kelvin, 
successfully  insulated  the  compass,  so,  though  she 
subsequently  discovered  the  principle  of  mind  heal- 
ing, it  was  not  until  Mary  Baker  learned  what 
"Quimbyism"  really  was,  namely  magnetism,  that 
she  came  to  understand  why  she  so  long  strove  in 
vain  to  have  Quimby  unfold  to  her  that  which  was 
not  his  to  give,  why  she  so  long  sought  for  principle 
where  there  was  no  principle.  Quimby  was  navi- 
gating without  a  compass,  and  his  zigzag  course 
could  only  fetch  home  by  accident. 

But  Quimby  believed  in  his  own  course  as  the 
true  one.  While  he  acknowledged  to  other  patients 
that  he  was  delighted  with  Mrs.  Patterson's  enthu- 
siasm and  asserted  that  her  perception  of  truth  was 
keener  than  that  of  any  other  of  his  patients,  it  is 
not  in  evidence  that  he  ever  gave  her  credit  for  a 
scope  which  exceeded  his,  save  in  religious  appre- 
hension, which  to  him  was  not  authoritative.  He 
received  from  Mrs.  Patterson  manuscripts  to  which 
she  unselfishly  and  unguardedly  signed  his  name. 
These  manuscripts  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  handwriting, 
interlined  with  Quimby's  emendations,  may  still  be 
in  existence. 

Lest  the  implied  reason  for  not  publishing 
the  alleged  Quimby  manuscripts  —  the  fear  that 
their   authorship  would   be   disputed  —  should   be 


102  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

retroactive,  there  is  still  another  reason  advanced. 
This  reason,  too,  is  given  only  by  implication,  but 
it  is  worthier  of  commendation  than  the  former.  The 
second  reason  is  the  illiteracy  of  Phineas  Quimby, 
for  which  he  was  in  no  wise  to  blame,  but  which,  as 
has  been  shown,  prevented  his  accomplishing  any- 
thing in  the  way  of  literature.^ 

1  The  author  made  the  journey  in  the  depth  of  winter  to  the  httle  town  of 
Belfast,  Maine,  off  the  main  line  of  travel  and  somewhat  difficult  of  access,  to 
see,  as  I  supposed,  the  Quimby  manuscripts.  Arriving  there  the  custodian 
of  the  manuscripts,  George  A.  Quimby,  said  to  me: 

"If  all  the  people  who  have  come  to  see  me  in  the  past  twenty  years  about 
these  manuscripts  of  my  father  were  fishes  and  were  laid  head  and  tail  together 
they  would  stretch  from  here  to  Montana.  If  all  the  letters  that  have  been 
written  to  me  on  the  subject  were  spread  out  they  would  make  a  plaster  that 
would  cover  the  country." 

When  I  asked  Mr.  Quimby  for  permission  to  see  these  much-talked-of 
manuscripts,  he  took  from  a  drawer  in  his  desk  a  copybook  such  as  school 
children  use  to  write  essays  in.  It  was  in  a  good  state  of  preservation,  not 
yellowed  by  age,  and  was  written  in  from  cover  to  cover  in  a  neat  copyist's 
hand.  There  were  no  erasures,  or  interlineations,  no  breaks  for  paragraphs 
and  very  few  headings.  There  were  dates  at  the  end  of  the  articles,  of  which 
there  appeared  to  be  two  or  three  different  ones  in  the  book.  The  dates  were 
1861  and  1863. 

"Is  this  your  father's  handwriting?  "  I  asked  Mr.  Quimby. 
"It  is  not;  that  is  my  mother's,  I  believe,  and  here  is  one  in  the  handwriting 
of  one  of  the  Misses  Ware." 

Mr.  Quimby  went  to  a  great  iron  safe  in  the  wall  of  his  office  and  brought 
out  six  or  eight  more  books  of  a  similar  character.  I  glanced  through  the  pages 
and  saw  that  all  were  written  in  this  style  with  some  variation  in  the  handwriting 
and  then  asked: 

"Are  none  of  these  in  your  father's  handwriting?  " 

"No,  they  are  all  copies  of  copies.  .  .  .  These  are  the  only  manuscripts  I 
have  shown  to  any  one  and  the  only  ones  I  will  show." 

"But,"  I  objected,  "there  have  recently  been  printed  facsimile  reproduc- 
tions of  your  father's  manuscripts  over  the  date  1863  in  which  appears  the 
words  'Christian  Science.'    I  particularly  wished  to  see  that  manuscript." 

"I  am  showing  you  exactly  what  I  showed  others.  That  is  the  very  page 
that  was  photographed." 

"And  in  whose  writing  is  this?" 

"My  mother's,  I  believe,  or  possibly  one  of  the  Misses  Ware;  .  .  .  they  are 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  QUIMBY  MANUSCRIPTS    103 

"My  father  was  self-educated,"  said  Mr.  Quimby, 
"but  he  had  read  a  great  deal.  His  head  was  full 
of  speculative  ideas  and  he  was  constantly  writing 
down  his  thoughts.  He  wrote  without  capitalizing 
or  punctuating.  His  mind  was  always  ahead  of  his 
pen,  and  he  would  not  paragraph  or  formulate  his 
thoughts  into  essays.  I  guess  many  of  his  words 
were  misspelled  too." 

If  the  son  has  cherished  and  still  possesses  the 
papers  containing  his  father's  original  notes,  there 
must  be  some  more  sufficient  reason,  which  he  alone 
knows,  why  he  so  long  has  withheld  them  from 
publicity.  He  has  for  years  refused  to  submit  them 
for  inspection  to  any  person  competent  or  incom- 
petent to  judge  of  their  value.  Under  the  most 
urgent  demand  he  has  failed  to  bring  them  forth 
into  the  light,  to  allow  a  friend  in  dire  need  to  use 
them  in  defence  in  a  suit  at  law,  or  to  permit  a  dis- 
tinguished scholar  to  prepare  a  brief  in  their  inter- 
est. Literary  men,  lawyers,  and  journalists  have 
urged  their  exhibition  in  vain.    In  1887  Mrs.  Eddy 

copies  of  things  my  father  wrote.    He  used  to  write  at  odd  moments  on  scraps 
of  paper  whatever  came  into  his  mind." 

"And  have  you  those  papers  now?" 

"Yes,  I  have." 

"Will  you  let  me  see  a  few  pages  of  them?" 

"No,  I  will  not.  No  one  has  seen  them  and  no  one  shall.  ...  I  tell  you 
they  have  all  been  after  them,  Arens,  Dresser,  Minot  J.  Savage,  Peabody,  and 
these  recent  newspaper  and  magazine  investigators.  But  I  have  never  shown 
them.    Dr.  Savage  wrote  me  that  I  owed  it  to  the  world  to  produce  them." 

"And  did  you  not  think  so?" 

"No.    I  have  said  I  will  never  print  them  while  that  woman  lives." 

"Do  you  mean  Mrs.  Eddy?" 

"That  is  just  who  I  mean." 

—  Human  Life,  April,  1907. 


104  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

advertised  that  she  would  pay  for  their  publication. 
But  for  some  deep  and  inscrutable  reason  it  has 
been  impossible  to  unveil  them. 

The  conclusion  seems  warranted  that  there  is 
nothing  worthy  of  the  name  of  manuscripts  in  the 
Quimby  safe.  It  may  be  that  there  are  certain  de- 
posits of  fragmentary  pencilings  of  Phineas  Quimby. 
It  may  be  that  there  are  certain  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
writings  there.  It  may  be  that  these  wTitings  are 
interlaced,  and  to  produce  one  is  to  produce  the 
other.  Thus  the  Quimby  manuscript  tradition 
may  rest,  not  on  nothing,  but,  as  in  the  Humbert 
will  case,  on  something  so  near  to  nothing  as  to  be 
negligible  of  consideration. 

But  though  the  original  manuscripts,  if  such  there 
be,  have  never  seen  the  light,  it  must  be  understood 
that  George  A.  Quimby  has  exhibited  some  writings 
which  he  calls  Quimby  manuscripts.  These  are  a 
series  of  copybooks  filled  with  writing.  Originality 
is  not  claimed  for  these  writings  which  are  described 
as  copies  of  copies  of  Phineas  Quimby's  notes,  but 
only  are  they  so  described  when  exact  information 
is  required.  Ordinarily  they  are  loosely  called  by 
Mr.  Quimby,  "my  father's  manuscripts." 

Authenticity  is  rendered  doubtful  for  these  writ- 
ings, because,  not  only  has  no  one  ever  seen  the 
originals  on  which  they  are  said  to  be  based,  but 
also  because  the  world  never  heard  of  these  copy- 
books until  after  "Science  and  Health"  had  long 
been  published,  was  in  its  third  edition,  and  the 
book  and  its  philosophy  had  begun  to  make  a  stir 
in  the  world  of  thought.    It  would  have  to  be  shown 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  QUIMBY  MANUSCRIPTS    105 

clearly  upon  what  they  are  based  to  clear  them  of 
the  possibility  of  plagiarism.  It  is  possible  they  are 
of  an  earlier  date  than  when  they  first  came  to  be 
spoken  of;  it  is  possible  they  are  enlargements  on 
conversations  held  with  Phineas  Quimby  by  the 
patients  who  made  the  transcriptions ;  it  is  pos- 
sible they  are  emended  Mary  Baker  writings. 

But  unless  originals  exist,  how  can  these  copy- 
book writings  be  authenticated  ?  Yet  the  copybook 
manuscripts  with  their  uncertain  dates,  the  "copies 
of  copies,"  are  all  that  is  meant  when  critics  of 
Christian  Science  refer  ambiguously  to  Quimby's 
writings.  These  copybooks  have  been  evasively  ex- 
hibited in  lieu  of  the  original  Quimby  notes,  and 
the  owner  of  the  copybooks  has  allowed  books  to 
be  written  from  them  on  the  philosophy  of  Quimby, 
has  given  out  photographs  of  their  pages  as  fac- 
simili  of  Quimby's  manuscripts,  and  has  generally 
led  the  world  to  believe  they  were  the  writings  of 
his  father.  He  appears  himself  to  be  a  victim  of 
the  Quimby  manuscript  tradition. 

If  the  copybook  manuscripts  themselves  were 
published,  illustrated  with  original  Quimby  notes, 
illiterate  scrawls  it  may  be,  yet  the  genuine  pencil- 
ings  of  Phineas  Quimby,  some  interest  might  be 
evoked  for  them.  But  until  this  act  of  sincerity  be 
performed,  so  far  as  the  evidence  goes  Quimby  left 
no  writings. 


CHAPTER    IX 

MESMERISM   DOMINANT 

BELIEVING  thoroughly  in  Quimby  as  a  pro- 
found sage  and  saintly  man,  Mrs.  Patterson,  to 
the  astonishment  of  her  family,  returned  to  Tilton  a 
well  woman.  Before  leaving  Portland  she  ascended 
to  the  dome  of  the  city  hall  by  a  stairway  of  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty-two  steps  to  signalize  her  complete 
recovery  from  spinal  weakness.  Attributing  her 
well-being  entirely  to  Quimby  and  asserting  that  he 
was  not  a  Spiritualist  or  a  mesmerist,  she  wrote  two 
articles  for  the  Press  of  Portland,  giving  him  the 
honor  of  her  cure  and  revealing  a  gratitude  so  heart- 
felt and  sincere  that  the  most  cynical  must  have  ad- 
mitted her  generosity.  In  one  article  she  said  she 
could  see  dimly  and  only  as  trees  walking  the  great 
principle  which  underlay  his  works. 

That  neither  Quimby  nor  any  of  his  patients  could 
discern  this  principle,  and  that  he  did  constantly 
resort  to  Spiritualistic  clairvoyance  for  diagnosis  and 
to  mesmerism  for  healing,  made  no  alteration  in  the 
faith  of  Maiy  Baker.  She  heard  and  saw  only  what 
was  in  her  own  mind  and  experience,  and  continued 
to  identify  publicly  and  privately  her  faith  with 
Quimby's  in  the  face  of  all  the  evidence  to  the  con- 
trary and  his  own  occasional  expostulation.  The 
Portland  public,  reading  her  articles,  fairly  caught 


MESMERISM  DOMINANT  107 

its  breath  and  asked  in  amazement,  "What,  this 
Quimby  compared  to  Christ!  well,  what  next?" 
In  her  attitude  toward  Quimby  she  was  like  a 
daughter  idealizing  a  father  whom  all  the  world 
knows  to  be  other  than  she  thinks  him.  Safe  in  her 
religious  faith,  Mary  Baker  was  to  this  extent  con- 
trolled by  mesmerism. 

On  arriving  at  her  sister's  home  she  talked  to  the 
various  members  of  her  family  and  all  their  intimate 
friends  about  Quimby's  power  to  heal,  talked  until 
she  really  excited  in  her  sister  Abigail  a  curiosity  to 
know  something  of  Quimby.  The  handsome  boy, 
Albert,  whose  birth  had  been  largely  responsible  for 
the  banishment  of  Mary's  son,  George  Glover,  had 
grown  up  into  a  rather  wayward  young  man.  Abi- 
gail wanted  her  boy  cured  of  his  habits  and  she  in- 
structed Mary  to  write  "Dr."  Quimby  to  come  to 
them,  as  he  professed  himself  able  to  do,  spiritually, 
or  in  his  "condensed  identity,"  or  by  his  "omni- 
presence," and  give  Albert  the  benefit  of  his  mag- 
netic "wisdom."  As  nothing  resulted  from  the 
writing  to  change  Albert's  habits,  Mrs.  Tilton 
determined  to  go  herself  to  Portland.  She  made  the 
journey  with  a  woman  friend  about  a  month  after 
Mary's  return,  but  she  returned  home  confirmed 
in  her  own  mind  that  Quimby  was  exactly  what  she 
had  previously  supposed  him  to  be,  an  ignorant 
quack  with  a  jargon  of  cant  which  made  no  impres- 
sion upon  her.  She  was  gratified  that  Mary  was 
cured,  but  what  had  cured  her  she  failed  to  compre- 
hend from  her  experience  with  Quimby.  Abigail 
Tilton  came  near  to  the  truth,  however,  when  she 


108  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

told  her  family  that  it  was  Mary's  own  faith  and 
had  nothing  whatsoever  to  do  with  the  Portland 
mesmerist.  As  for  Albert,  he  was  not  benefited,  and 
his  life  ended  in  an  early  death. 

Mrs.  Patterson's  restored  health  made  possible 
her  activity  in  her  husband's  interest.  She  shortly 
made  a  journey  to  Washington  with  letters  from 
the  governor  of  New  Hampshire  to  President  Lin- 
coln, to  intercede  for  his  release  from  prison.  Offi- 
cial action  was  set  in  motion  and  about  the  holiday 
season  she  returned  to  Tilton  happy  over  the  prob- 
able outcome  of  her  trip.  Shortly  afterwards  Dr. 
Patterson  was  released  and  he  also  came  to  Tilton. 
He  was  penniless,  threadbare,  and  emaciated,  a 
spectacle  to  excite  commiseration.  His  share  in  the 
fortunes  of  war  had  been  inglorious  and  bitter,  but 
he  had  a  thrilling  tale  to  unfold  and  was  eager  to 
relate  it.  Through  the  assistance  of  his  brother  in 
Saco,  Maine,  and  his  wife's  intervention  for  him 
with  her  own  family,  he  soon  recovered  his  former 
prosperity,  but  did  not  at  once  resume  his  dental 
practise,  nor  did  he  seem  disposed  to  reassume  his 
domestic  obligations.  Some  natural  toleration  was 
felt  by  all  who  knew  him  for  his  desire  for  a  vacation 
and  he  was  humored  in  an  imaginary  importance 
which  impelled  him  to  a  lecture  tour.  So  he  departed 
on  a  leisurely  round  of  visits  to  the  various  towns 
where  he  had  formerly  practised,  speaking  on  his 
prison  experiences. 

Mrs.  Patterson  remained  with  her  sister  and  took 
an  active  interest  in  the  sewing  circles  which  were 
organized  to  provide  garments  for  the  soldiers  and 


MESMERISM  DOMINANT  109 

lint  and  bandages  for  the  hospitals.  In  this  work 
both  sisters  were  active  and  much  together  in  their 
old-time  affectionate  intimacy.  With  her  wasting 
illness  gone,  Mrs.  Patterson  recovered  her  early 
comeliness,  her  cheeks  again  became  rosy,  her  eyes 
sparkling,  and  her  spirits  gay.  She  wrote  a  letter  at 
this  time  to  Quimby  in  which  she  said,  "I  am  as 
much  an  escaped  prisoner  as  my  dear  husband 
was." 

All  through  the  summer  she  remained  at  Tilton, 
active  in  charitable  work;  but  in  the  fall  her  sense 
of  private  duty  and  personal  obligation  led  her  to  go 
to  Saco,  the  early  home  of  her  husband.  Here  she 
visited  his  brother  and  was  for  a  time  with  her  hus- 
band, whom  she  endeavored  to  persuade  to  return 
to  his  practise.  His  wander-fever  was  not  yet  satis- 
fied, but  he  agreed  to  make  an  effort  to  establish 
himself,  and  for  this  ultimate  object  went  to  Lynn, 
Massachusetts. 

Disappointed  in  his  purposeless  conduct,  Mrs. 
Patterson  felt  a  spiritual  depression  overtaking  her. 
It  seemed  likely  that  she  was  going  to  find  it  difficult 
to  reconcile  her  husband  to  orderly  living,  just  when 
her  improved  health  made  life  seem  to  stretch  before 
her  invitingly  with  many  avenues  open  for  usefulness. 
Her  perplexity  was  so  serious  that  it  amounted  to  J 
anxiety,  and  now  she  experienced  a  return  of  a  num- 
ber of  minor  ailments  and  illnesses  which  threatened 
to  culminate  in  a  serious  renewal  of  suffering. 

Was  this  cure  of  hers,  so  widely  proclaimed,  to 
lapse,  and  was  she  again  to  return  to  the  old  misery  ? 
In  the  year  which  had  just  passed  she  had  been 


110  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

more  or  less  absorbed  in  the  world,  traveling,  and 
actively  working  in  the  relief  organizations.  Her 
religious  life  had  not  been  exclusively  absorbing,  for 
she  had  been  conforming  more  to  the  customary 
ways  of  the  world  than  for  many  years.  But  if  she 
could  not  take  her  understanding  of  God's  laws  into 
every-day  life  and  use  it  to  meet  the  shock  of  events, 
of  what  use  was  it  to  her  or  to  others,  how  could  she 
really  claim  to  possess  an  understanding.?  She  be- 
gan to  see  that  she  had  not  possessed  herself  of  clear 
and  definite  understanding,  or  any  sound  philoso- 
phy ;  and  with  the  hope  that  she  would  yet  acquire 
such  an  enlightenment  from  Quimby,  she  left  the 
home  of  her  husband's  family  and  went  again  to 
Portland.    This  was  in  the  early  part  of  1864. 

During  this  sojourn  in  Portland  Mrs.  Patterson 
resided  at  a  boarding-house  where  were  also  living 
two  other  of  Mr.  Quimby's  patients,  Mrs.  Sarah 
Crosby  and  Miss  Mary  Ann  Jarvis.  They  became 
acquainted  and  shortly  a  friendly  intimacy  was 
established  among  them  all  on  the  basis  of  their 
common  interest.  Mrs.  Crosby  had  an  especially 
vigorous  personality  and  was  later  to  show  herself 
possessed  of  considerable  business  ability.  At  the 
time  of  her  meeting  Mrs.  Patterson  she  had  been 
broken  down  in  health  by  the  birth  of  several  chil- 
dren and  thought  her  vitality  exhausted. 

Mrs.  Crosby's  experience  under  Quimby's  treat- 
ment was  like  Mrs.  Patterson's  in  outward  seeming. 
He  sat  opposite  her  and  gazed  fixedly  into  her  eyes ; 
he  laid  one  hand  on  her  stomach  and  one  on  her 
head  to  establish  an  electric  current;    and  finally 


MESMERISM  DOMINANT  111 

rubbed  her  head  vigorously  and  told  her  his  spirit 
would  accompany  her  home.  In  describing  him 
she  says  he  was  a  "natural  healer." 

It  was  the  custom  of  the  patients  to  take  their 
treatment  in  the  morning  and  the  afternoon  hours 
were  largely  spent  in  disentangling  each  other's  hair 
from  the  mesmerist's  snarling  and  their  ideas  from 
his  confusing  statements.  Mrs.  Patterson  did  not 
linger  long  with  this  feminine  seminar.  Quimby 
frequently  invited  her  to  return  to  his  office  after  he 
was  through  practising  to  continue  those  interviews 
which  he  had  had  with  her  on  her  previous  visits, 
remembering  the  absorbing  discussions  of  the  topic 
of  spiritual  healing  which  she  had  introduced  at  the 
time.  On  these  occasions  she  sometimes  argued 
long  and  earnestly  with  him,  endeavoring  to  lead 
him  to  accept  her  ideas  and  to  group  his  thoughts 
into  a  logical  syllogism.  Her  evenings  were  almost 
entirely  spent  in  the  attempt  to  harmonize  his  no- 
tions with  her  own  spiritual  ideas.  Mrs.  Crosby  has 
said  that  Mrs.  Patterson  labored  long  into  the  night 
at  her  writings.  These  are  some  of  the  writings 
which  supposedly  form  the  basis  of  the  copybook 
literature. 

In  the  spring  of  1864  Mrs.  Patterson  spent  two 
months  at  Warren,  Maine,  with  Miss  Jarvis  and  her 
consumptive  sister,  striving  to  further  the  work 
Quimby  had  begun  and  to  complete  the  cure  of  the 
consumptive.  She  had  traveled  home  with  the  in- 
valids from  Portland  and  they  clung  to  her  for  heal- 
ing. She  was  able  to  help  them  but  little,  for  now 
she  was  trying  to  believe  in  "Quimby ism"  with  all 


112  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

the  force  of  her  nature  and  she  talked  Quimbyism  to 
the  exclusion  of  all  other  topics.  In  Warren  she  even 
gave  a  lecture  on  Quimby's  "science"  in  the  town 
hall,  defending  him  from  deism  and  Spiritualism; 
and  in  an  interview  with  the  editor  of  the  Banner  of 
Light,  the  Spiritualistic  organ,  she  continued  this 
defence,  much  to  his  bewilderment.  For  what  was 
she,  an  avowed  philosophical  Christian,  working, 
this  gentleman  asked.  How  could  she  claim  to  be 
the  pupil  of  a  disbeliever  in  Christ's  Christianity  — 
a  clairvoyant  and  a  magnetic  healer.^  If  Quimby 
was  not  such,  as  all  who  knew  him  believed,  but 
something  else  which  he  could  not  fathom,  as 
Mrs.  Patterson  held,  then  he  wished  to  see  this  "de- 
funct Spiritualist"  and  look  into  this  new  doctrine. 
Thus  in  those  days,  Mary  Baker's  confusion  spread 
abroad. 

In  May  Mrs.  Patterson  went  to  Albion  to  visit 
Mrs.  Crosby.  Here  a  family  of  numerous  members 
dwelt  in  a  large  roomy  farmhouse  and  life  was  car- 
ried on  in  the  patriarchal  spirit  of  the  American 
Colonial  period;  Mrs.  Crosby  lived  with  her  hus- 
band's family  and  spent  much  of  her  time  in  the  big 
sunny  nursery  while  her  mother-in-law  directed  the 
work  of  the  household.  She  was  delighted  to  have 
Mrs.  Patterson  with  her,  and  after  years  of  experi- 
ence in  the  world,  she  still  looks  back  to  this  summer 
and  her  companionship  with  Mary  Baker  as  one  of 
the  most  stimulating,  interesting,  and  inspiring 
periods  of  her  life. 

Her  little  daughter  Ada  became  Mrs.  Patterson's 
shadow,  following  her  everywhere,  about  the  house, 


MESMERISM  DOMINANT  113 

on  her  walks,  and  bringing  her  hassock  to  sit  at  her 
feet  to  hear  fairy  stories  when  she  was  not  banished 
to  outer  gloom.  She  was  the  first  of  three  young 
girls  who  were  attracted  like  young  disciples  by  the 
wonder  and  enthralment  of  the  unfolding,  spiritual 
nature  which  entertained  them  with  glimpses  of  the 
land  of  heart's  desire.  Mrs.  Patterson  spent  a  great 
deal  of  her  time  here  as  elsewhere  in  writing,  but 
there  were  long  hours  which  she  passed  in  conversa- 
tion with  Mrs.  Crosby,  and  the  latter  has  said  no 
woman  was  ever  such  a  friend  to  her,  no  friend  had 
up  to  that  time  or  has  since  done  so  much  to  help 
her  to  "get  hold  of  herself."  She  has  described  Mrs. 
Patterson  as  possessed  of  a  vigorous  intelligence,  but 
a  gentle  and  refined  personality,  and  witnesses  her 
daughter's  devotion  to  the  womanly  sweetness  of 
her  guest. 

Spiritualism  was  a  dominant  interest  in  this  family . 
as  in  many  New  England  families  of  the  period. 
How  Mary  Baker  strove  to  overcome  the  inherent 
superstition  in  Sarah  Crosby,  and  how  Sarah  Crosby 
curiously  misinterpreted  the  effort  and  continued  to 
misinterpret  through  all  the  years  to  come  makes  the 
most  illuminating  anecdote  which  can  be  told  of  this 
visit.  It  portrays  a  source  of  much  offense  that  has 
trailed  its  revenge  through  years,  pilloried  density 
and  wounded  pride  crying  long  and  loud  against  the 
sprightly  wit  that  cornered  them. 

Mrs.  Patterson  was  radically  opposed  to  Spiritu- 
alism and  Mrs.  Crosby  was  almost  as  strenuously 
set  in  its  defence.  She  would  describe  its  phenom- 
ena as  conclusive  argument  while  Mrs.  Patterson, 


114  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

bantering  her,  protested  she  could  reproduce  the  so- 
called  phenomena.  Failing  by  raillery  or  argument 
to  convince  her  friend,  she  resorted  to  illustration. 
In  their  conversations  of  a  long  summer's  afternoon, 
Mrs.  Patterson  had  occasionally  reverted  to  the  in- 
fluence her  lamented  brother  had  exercised  over  her 
studies  and  ideals.  She  had  described  his  appear- 
ance, talents,  and  personality  with  the  loving  strokes 
of  reminiscence  which  make  vivid  portraiture.  Mrs. 
Crosby  was  an  impressionable  listener.  She  possessed 
a  sentimental  imagination  combined  with  practical 
energy,  and  she  became  enamored  of  the  mental 
picture  of  the  departed  Albert  Baker. 

To  cleanse  her  mind  of  such  trumpery  rouge  of 
false  sentiment  and  to  administer  a  sharp  corrective 
to  her  superstition,  Mrs.  Patterson  conceived  and 
put  in  practise  an  admirable  though  harmless  hoax. 
One  day,  as  Mrs.  Crosby  has  described  it,  while  they 
sat  together  at  opposite  sides  of  a  table  in  the  big 
nursery,  Mrs.  Patterson  suddenly  leaned  back  in  her 
chair,  shivered  from  head  to  foot,  closed  her  eyes, 
and  began  to  talk  in  a  deep,  sepulchral  voice.  The 
voice  purported  to  be  Albert  Baker's,  saying  he  had 
long  been  trying  to  get  control  of  his  sister  Mary. 
He  wished  to  warn  Mrs.  Crosby  against  putting  en- 
tire confidence  in  her,  for  though  Mary  loved  her 
friend,  the  voice  said,  life  was  a  hard  experiment  for 
her  and  she  might  come  to  slight  Mrs.  Crosby's 
devotion. 

As  the  message  was  uncomplimentary  to  herself, 
Mrs.  Patterson  expected  Mrs.  Crosby  would  shortly 
recognize  the  pretense  and  laugh  with  her  over  it. 


MESMERISM  DOMINANT  115 

Not  SO.  Mrs.  Crosby  became  mysterious,  shook  her 
head  sagely,  and  declared  that  she  knew  what  she 
knew.  Mrs.  Patterson,  with  a  gaiety  which  she  has 
rarely  indulged,  continued  the  hoax.  She  pretended 
to  go  into  another  "trance"  on  the  following  day  to 
inform  Sarah  Crosby  that  if  she  would  look  under 
the  cushion  of  a  certain  chair,  she  would  find  letters 
from  Albert.  Mrs.  Crosby  eagerly  did  so,  and  her 
seriousness  affected  Mrs.  Patterson.  She  had  not  in- 
tended to  really  mislead  her  friend,  but  seeing  that 
she  persisted  in  taking  the  affair  seriously,  Mrs. 
Patterson  wrote  her  some  good  advice,  couched  in 
language  supposedly  appropriate  to  spirit  utterance, 
and  laid  it  in  the  secret  place,  as  good  mothers  reply 
to  the  letters  written  the  fairies.  These  letters  Mrs. 
Crosby  has  kept  and  has  always  maintained  that  they 
came  from  the  spirit  land.  Though  their  source  was 
in  humor,  their  character  was  not  facetious;  they 
were  not  harsh  or  misleading,  subtle  or  filled  with 
guile ;  they  are  gentle  admonishments  to  right  living, 
and  cheerful  encouragement  to  believe  in  the  sure 
reward.^ 

It  seems  unnecessary  to  point  out  that  this  whilom 

*  Mrs.  Crosby  allowed  these  letters  to  be  printed  and  the  following  extracts 
are  taken  from  them:  "Sarah,  dear,  be  ye  calm  in  reliance  on  self,  amid  aU  the 
changes  of  natural  yearnings,  of  too  keen  a  sense  of  earthly  joys,  of  too  great  a 
struggle  between  the  material  and  the  spiritual.  Be  ye  calm  or  you  will  rend 
your  mortal  being,  and  your  experience  which  is  needed  for  your  spiritual 
progress  lost,  till  taken  up  without  the  proper  sphere  and  your  spirit  trials  more 
severe.  Child  of  earth,  heir  to  immortahty !  love  hath  made  intercession  with 
wisdom  for  you  —  your  request  is  answered.  Love  each  other,  your  spirits  are 
affined.  My  dear  Sarah  is  innocent  and  will  rejoice  for  every  tear.  The  gates 
of  paradise  are  opening  at  the  tread  of  time ;  glory  and  the  cro^  n  shall  be  the 
diadem  of  yoiu"  earthly  pilgrimage  if  you  patiently  persevere  in  \Trtue,  justice, 
and  love." 


116  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

r^indulgence  in  nonsense  during  a  rather  long  and 
,  tedious  visit  does  not  in  any  sense  connect  Mrs. 
Eddy  with  the  beUef  in  Spiritualism,  nor  does  it 
show  levity  concerning  sacred  things.  It  was  simply 
an  effort  to  disabuse  a  too  confiding  mind  of  its 
credulity,  which,  failing,  was  turned  into  a  harmless 
toleration  of  its  limitations.  Mrs.  Crosby  very 
shortly  after  her  association  with  Mrs.  Patterson 
took  up  the  study  of  stenography.  She  had  imbibed 
from  Mary  Baker's  companionship  the  desire  to 
make  her  life  useful.  She  was  one  of  the  earliest 
female  court  reporters  in  New  England.  After  a 
business  career  w^hich  netted  her  a  small  fortune, 
she  settled  in  Waterville,  Maine,  where  she  acquired 
property,  and  in  continuation  of  her  liking  for  the 
esoteric,  she  became  a  member  of  the  society  of 
mystic  adepts  of  New  York  or  elsewhere. 


CHAPTER    X 

THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF   CHRISTIAN 

SCIENCE 

IN  the  autumn  of  1864  Mrs.  Patterson  rejoined  her 
husband  in  Lynn.  After  some  desultory  practise 
in  the  offices  of  other  dentists,  he  had  estabhshed 
himself  in  an  office  of  his  own,  and  the  results  of  his 
application  to  business  had  made  it  possible  for  him 
to  send  for  his  wife. 

Lynn,  a  manufacturing  center,  eight  miles  from 
Boston,  was  now  to  be  her  home,  save  for  short 
periods,  for  fifteen  years,  and  here  her  great  dis- 
covery was  made  and  first  promulgated.  Lynn  is 
too  large  and  important  a  city  to  be  thought  of  as  a 
suburb  of  Boston,  though  towns  more  distant  from 
the  metropolis  of  New  England  bear  that  relation  to 
the  larger  city.  Lynn  is  now  the  third  largest  city  of 
Massachusetts  and  was  then  a  thriving  town,  where 
the  largest  shoe  manufacturer  in  the  world  had  his 
establishment.  It  is  on  the  seacoast,  but  has  not  a 
shipping  port;  residential  streets  skirt  the  shore; 
there  is  a  broad  plaza,  sea-wall,  and  promenade 
along  the  ocean  front,  and  a  beautiful  drive  connects 
the  town  with  quaint  old  Marblehead.  This  drive 
marks  the  beginning  of  what  is  known  in  New  Eng- 
land as  the  North  Shore,  which  extends  all  the  way 
to  Gloucester,  about  thirty  miles,  and  along  which 
stretch  of  ocean  view  are  situated  Manchester-by- 


118  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

the-Sea,  Prides  Crossing,  and  Magnolia,  the  summer 
homes  of  the  greatest  wealth  of  America. 

Though  Ocean  street,  Lynn,  has  many  handsome 
residences,  —  the  people  living  there  boasting  that 
nothing  intervenes  between  them  and  Ireland  save 
the  stormy  Atlantic,  —  still  the  city  is  not  regarded 
as  a  summer  resort,  nor  a  residential  district  of 
Boston,  but,  as  a  factory  town,  one  of  the  most 
important  shoe  factory  centers  in  the  world.  When 
the  American  Civil  War  made  a  great  demand  for 
shoes,  the  old-fashioned  method  of  producing  foot 
wear  by  hand  labor  was  not  adequate  to  meet  the 
demand.  Men  who  held  patents  on  machines  for 
sewing  sole  leather  found  it  lucrative  to  rent  their 
machines  and  many  small  factories  sprang  up  at 
this  time,  not  only  in  Lynn,  but  in  other  towns 
adjoining  Boston  where  land  rent  was  cheaper  than 
in  the  city  and  where  labor  could  be  attracted. 
Lynn  easily  led  in  this  industry.  Its  situation  was 
beautiful,  the  climate  healthful,  the  accessibility  to 
Boston  with  its  many  advantages  easy.  This  in- 
dustry very  early  attracted  women  workers  as  well 
as  men  and  whole  families  went  into  the  shoe 
factories,  for  women  and  children  could  operate  the 
machines  and  find  employment  in  the  many  divi- 
sions of  the  labor  which  arose  from  the  factory 
method.  Thus  the  character  of  a  large  proportion 
of  the  population  of  Lynn  is  indicated,  and  it  will  be 
readily  grasped  that  this  was  an  excellent  starting 
point  for  a  great  religious  work,  even  as  Jesus  found 
a  seed  place  among  the  fishermen  of  Galilee  and 
Paul  among  the  tent-making  Thessalonians. 


PRINCIPLE  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  119 

The  thriving  town  attracted  professional  as  well  as 
business  men.  A  dentist  should  find  plenty  to  do 
where  so  many  of  the  population  of  both  sexes 
earned  good  wages.  Dr.  Patterson  after  frittering 
his  time  away  here  for  months  had  been  to  see  his 
wife's  family  and  doubtless  had  been  admonished 
by  both  Mark  Baker  and  Mrs.  Alexander  Tilton. 
The  latter,  believing  rigidly  in  the  conventionalities 
as  she  did,  thought  it  not  proper  that  Dr.  Patterson 
should  keep  up  his  meandering  and  his  desultory 
occupations.  His  fitful,  incoherent  busying  of 
himself  with  first  one  project  and  then  another 
bore  no  relation  to  the  continuity  of  existence  and 
compelled  his  wife  to  remain  in  suspended  expecta- 
tion, a  guest  of  relatives  and  friends,  awaiting  his 
mood.  Thus  Abigail  Tilton  had  taken  him  to  task 
roundly,  and  smarting  under  her  words,  he  had 
rented  the  ofiice  in  Lynn  and,  with  a  revival  of 
exuberance  and  excessive  overconfidence,  had  in- 
serted an  advertisement  in  the  local  paper  in  which 
he  asked  those  whom  he  had  met  in  his  brother 
dentists'  offices  to  patronize  him  in  the  future  and 
stated  that  he  hoped  to  secure  the  patronage  of  *'all 
the  rest  of  mankind."  He  gradually  secured  a 
respectable  practise,  for  he  was  a  good  dentist  and 
might  have  succeeded  very  well  had  he  been  less  idle, 
boisterous,  and  romantic.  But  he  was  a  born  rover, 
and  coupled  with  his  restlessness  was  a  silly  vanity 
in  his  powers  of  fascination  over  equally  silly  and 
romantic  women.  When  Mrs.  Patterson  rejoined 
him  after  over  two  years  of  separation,  it  was  for  but 
a  brief  reunion  of  little  more  than  a  year's  duration. 


120  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

It  was  her  final  effort,  a  serious  and  praiseworthy 
effort,  to  reconcile  her  husband  to  regular  living  and 
social  obligations.  She  had  no  light  task  in  holding 
to  right  conduct  her  handsome,  wayward,  uncouth 
husband,  whose  nature  craved  the  flesh-pots,  the 
gauds  and  baubles  of  sentimentalism,  the  specious 
glamour  of  notoriety,  and  over  whom  "sweetness 
and  light"  had  but  little  sway. 

With  a  loyal  devotion  Mrs.  Patterson  strove  to 
fulfil  her  duty  as  a  wife,  never  betraying  what  her 
gentler  nature  suffered  in  outraged  pride,  wounded 
sensibility,  or  humiliated  aspiration.  This  man  was 
her  husband,  she  threw  the  cloak  of  love  over  his 
shortcomings  and  sought  to  interest  and  lead  him 
into  the  highest  associations  with  which  he  could  be 
affiliated.  During  the  months  which  followed,  as 
they  were  not  householders  and  she  had  no  home 
duties,  she  occupied  herself  with  writing,  many  of 
her  poems  and  prose  articles  appearing  in  the  Lynn 
papers.  She  attended  church  and  became  ac- 
quainted with  some  of  the  excellent  old  families 
of  the  city,  of  which  friendships  some  interesting 
associations  continued  throughout  a  long  period  of 
her  life. 

Mrs.  Patterson  readily  made  friends  whose  at- 
tachment was  strong.  Her  social  success  was  easy, 
and  she  quickly  gained  a  place  of  high  regard 
among  the  most  reserved.  Her  immediate  conquest 
of  strangers  was  through  her  indefinable  charm 
which  among  the  ruggeder  qualities  of  both  men  and 
women  came  like  the  gentle  graciousness  of  a  South- 
erner.    Society  in  New  England  cities  has   been 


PRINCIPLE  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  121 

remarked  for  a  certain  brusqueness,  a  downrightness 
which  often  ruffles  the  stranger.  But  though  the 
New  Englander  is  used  to  this  sort  of  manner,  he  is 
not  insensible  to  the  gentler  appeal  and  invariably 
falls  captive  to  the  foreigner  or  Southerner  who 
more  easily  practises  graciousness.  Mrs.  Patterson 
was  gentle  and  engaging,  her  manner  in  meeting  a 
stranger  winning  and  convincing  in  its  frank  sin- 
cerity. Her  substantial  qualities  of  natural  gifts 
and  cultivation,  however,  held  what  she  so  readily 
gained.  Entering  into  this  larger  life  of  Lynn  after 
a  long  absence  from  any  extended  social  intercourse, 
she  at  first  felt  the  instinct  to  enjoy  its  natural 
pleasure;  but  she  must  have  been  forced  soon  to 
the  discovery  that  she  could  not  maintain  a  social 
life  suitable  to  her  breeding,  for  people  who  re- 
ceived her  with  every  evidence  of  pleasure  were 
but  ill-disposed  toward  the  flamboyant  dentist 
whom  they  must  sooner  or  later  encounter.  It 
would  be  remarked  as  a  disappointing  and  amazing 
bit  of  social  data  that  so  gifted  and  attractive  a 
woman  should  be  married  to  a  man  so  ordinary,  if 
not  vulgar.  What  could  follow  for  Mrs.  Patterson 
but  a  social  aloofness  and  a  tuning  of  her  strings  to 
suit  the  necessities  ? 

Ordinary  was  not  the  word  for  Dr.  Patterson, 
since  common  persons  more  often  than  otherwise 
possess  the  virtues.  Extraordinary  was  the  word 
for  him,  who  was  florid,  pretentious,  and  bombastic. 
He  who  had  so  effectively  disported  his  frock  coat, 
silk  hat,  kid  boots  and  gloves  in  the  rural  mountain 
districts,  making  artisans  and  farmers'  wives  yearn 


122  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

after  his  departing  figure,  in  the  keener  social  light 
of  Lynn  appeared  as  rather  a  boorish  Beau  Brum- 
mel,  not  overnice  in  the  proprieties.  In  fact  gross 
Impropriety  was  soon  to  stamp  him  unmistakably 
and  thereafter  claim  him  for  her  own. 

Not  for  the  satisfaction,  therefore,  of  any  aspira- 
tion of  her  own,  but  to  interest  her  husband  and  give 
him  a  social  environment  in  which  he  would  not 
trip  at  every  step,  Mrs.  Patterson  joined  him  in 
uniting  with  the  Linwood  lodge  of  Good  Templars. 
The  "Worthy  Chief"  of  that  organization  found 
that  Mrs.  Patterson  wrote  for  the  press  occasionally 
and  was  gifted  as  a  speaker  and  that  when  she  could 
be  prevailed  upon  to  address  the  lodge,  she  was 
listened  to  with  unfeigned  interest.  Her  well-stored 
mind  invested  any  subject  she  handled  with  vital 
interest  and  her  pleasing  address  made  her  a  most 
engaging  speaker. 

"Mrs.  Patterson  was  unusual  in  almost  every 
particular,"  the  lodge  president  has  said,  "un- 
usually well-bred,  cultivated,  and  fine-looking,  and 
of  excellent  taste  in  matters  of  dress  and  the  toilet. 
Some  people  would  comment  unfavorably  through 
a  sense  of  inferiority,  I  firmly  believe,  and  would 
call  her  affected,  for  she  was  unusually  scrupulous  in 
the  observation  of  social  form.  She  had  a  quiet 
way  about  her  of  commanding  attention  and  in  the 
delivery  of  an  address  was,  in  a  strangely  quiet  way, 
impressive." 

With  such  a  member  on  their  lists  it  was  not  long 
before  the  lodge  chose  her  as  presiding  officer  of 
the  Legion  of  Honor,  the  women's  branch  of  the 


PRINCIPLE  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  123 

association,  and  members  still  living  say  she  was  in 
this  capacity  gracious  and  dignified,  displaying  a 
courteous  charm  with  executive  force.  It  is  likely 
that  in  this  office,  obscure  and  unimportant  as  it 
was,  Mrs.  Eddy  learned  her  first  lessons  in  organiza- 
tion and  leadership. 

Thus  the  Pattersons  lived  an  outwardly  calm  and 
decorous  existence,  and  whatever  was  transpiring 
underneath  of  social  waywardness  on  the  part  of  the 
husband  no  outward  sign  was  allowed  to  manifest 
itself  through  the  wife's  deportment.  No  breath  of 
scandal  was  ever  circulated  as  to  their  domestic 
harmony.  Mrs.  Patterson's  writings  occupied  the 
time  she  spent  alone.  Some  of  her  poems  written  at 
this  time  were  outbursts  of  patriotic  feeling.  The 
Civil  War  was  drawing  to  a  close,  and  the  woman 
born  with  the  blood  of  heroes  in  her  veins  found 
expression  in  verse  for  her  deep  love  of  country  and 
her  sympathy  with  emancipation.  Her  poems  were 
printed  side  by  side  with  those  of  John  Greenleaf 
Whittier,  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  and  Phoebe  Gary 
and  are  preserved  in  the  files  of  the  Lynn  papers. 
She  wrote  of  the  bells  that  rang  out  the  proclamation 
of  emancipation,  of  the  fighting  heroes  at  the  front 
and  those  fallen  in  battle,  of  "our  beloved  Lincoln," 
who  "laid  his  great  willing  heart  on  the  altar  of 
Justice."  Thus  she  showed  an  ardent  interest  at  all 
times  in  the  affairs  of  her  country.  While  her  verse 
would  not  take  rank  with  either  Whittier's  or 
Holmes'  in  poetic  rhythm  or  diction,  it  expressed  the 
fervor  of  her  heart  for  the  cause  of  freedom.  In 
other  instances  she  revealed  an  exquisite  sensibility 


124  THE   LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

to  the  beauty  of  nature.  Her  sublime  faith  in  God 
is  a  constant  and  pervading  influence  in  all  her 
writing,  whether  verse  or  prose. 

Outwardly  calm  and  decorous,  Mrs.  Patterson's 
interior  life  was  far  from  tranquil.  She  had  come  to 
Lynn  from  a  period  of  philosophic  abstraction,  had 
come  to  fulfil  her  obligations  as  a  wife  and  this  task, 
as  has  been  shown,  was  by  no  means  a  light  or  simple 
one.  But  difficult,  almost  desperate  as  it  was,  and 
doomed  to  failure  in  the  end,  it  was  not  the  greatest 
or  most  important  problem  of  her  existence.  In 
meeting  the  demands  of  such  a  task  she  found  the 
ordinary  exercise  of  long  trained  domestic  and 
social  faculties  available.  In  writing  verse  and 
news-letters  she  exercised  developed  mental  powers. 
Her  news-letters  to  the  Lynn  Reporter  from  Swamp- 
scott,  the  suburb  in  which  she  lived,  were  bright, 
gossipy  communications  in  which  she  mentions 
affairs  of  the  church,  the  schools,  the  construction  of 
new  and  beautiful  homes,  with  descriptions  of  the 
laying  out  of  estates  in  agreeable  schemes  of  land- 
scape gardening.  They  indicate  that  she  was  a 
special  writer  of  ability  who  might  have  become 
with  very  little  training  an  excellent  journalist. 
They  betray  a  vivacity,  color,  fancy  that  give  a  sense 
of  a  living,  glowing,  radiant  personality  to  whom 
life  is  always  a  wonderful  revelation. 

But  underneath  all  assumption  of  gaiety  and 
social  charm,  underneath  the  outward  calm  and 
sweetness  of  wifely  devotion,  there  was  a  desolating 
war  going  on  in  the  heart  of  this  woman.  It  betrayed 
itself  only  occasionally  and  in  half  light  to  those  who 


PRINCIPLE   OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  125 

were  most  intimately  associated  with  her  and  was 
the  occasion  of  the  withdrawal  of  some  half-prof- 
fered friendships.  She  spoke  too  much  of  religion 
was  the  complaint  of  the  shallow  worldlings.  No 
one  of  them  comprehended,  save  one  family  of  true 
friends,  the  depth  of  her  struggle  at  this  period. 
Something  bigger,  greater,  more  portentous,  more 
far-reaching  than  domestic  trials  of  a  tragic  charac- 
ter, than  even  the  sense  of  the  struggles  of  her 
country  for  honor  and  perpetuity,  —  and  to  Mary 
Baker  these  struggles  were  real  affairs  of  her  own 
living  interest,  —  yet  something  more  far-reaching 
than  home  or  national  life  was  making  war  Titanic 
in  the  subjective  regions  of  her  soul. 

So  far  the  effort  has  been  to  portray  Maiy  Baker's ' 
spiritual  life  side  by  side  with  the  account  of  the 
incidents  of  her  worldly  experiences.  She  has  been 
shown  as  a  docile  little  girl  absorbed  in  books,  a 
beautiful  young  woman  marrying  and  leaving  home, 
a  bereaved  widow  in  her  parents'  house  comforting 
the  declining  years  of  her  mother,  a  heart-broken 
mother  herself,  a  much  tried  wife  in  a  second  mar- 
riage, —  but  through  all  the  various  changes  in  her 
outward  fortune  her  spiritual  life  had  been  develop- 
ing consistently.  This  life,  awakened  in  the  days  of 
her  loving  communion  with  a  devout  mother,  was 
strengthened  in  her  conscientious  struggles  with  a 
dominating  Calvinistic  father;  it  was  stimulated  by 
the  uplifting  companionship  with  her  clergyman 
teacher ;  it  w^as  confirmed  in  the  subsequent  personal 
seeking  for  God  in  the  cloistered  suffering  in  the 
mountain  home.     Going  out  from  that  cloister  she 


126  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

met  the  first  real  obstacle  to  her  faith  in  the  weird 
doctrine  of  Phineas  Quimby.  How  she  strove  to 
harmonize  his  strange  theories  with  her  faith,  how 
she  labored  to  evolve  a  philosophy  from  his  in- 
coherencies  has  been  related.  She  had  come  to  a 
crisis  when  her  faith  would  no  longer  endure  the 
association  with  ideas  so  incongruous.  Her  angel 
fought  with  the  intruder  which,  veiled  in  obscurities, 
could  not  be  named  or  recognized.  The  battle  was 
terrific  and  it  was  prolonged.  It  had  begun  in  1862 
and  was  still  going  on  when  the  year  1866  dawned. 
The  woman  who  was  to  promulgate  a  new  under- 
standing of  Christianity,  which  would  shake  the 
world's  thought  to  its  center,  was  undergoing,  the 
anguish,  alarm,  and  terror  of  a  cataclysmic  upheaval 
which  she  concealed  from  all  the  world  and  bore 
alone. 

She  has  written  of  this  period  that  the  product  of 
her  own  earlier  thought  and  meditation  had  been 
vitiated  with  animal  magnetism  and  human  will- 
power, the  nature  of  which  she  was  as  ignorant  of 
as  Eve  of  sin  before  taught  by  the  serpent.  What 
serpent  was  to  teach  Mary  Baker  the  nature  of 
magnetism  ?  That  lesson  was  still  far  off.  The 
unveiling  of  the  angel's  face,  the  shining  visage  of 
Truth  in  her  heart,  was  to  precede  the  unveiled 
vision  of  error  by  years  sufficient  for  her  to  grow  to 
the  fighting  stature  in  the  consciousness  of  its  power. 

But  now  she  was  all  but  dominated  by  the  power 
of  the  darker  error  she  has  named  mesmerism  or 
magnetism,  and  her  mental  state  was  worse  than 
the  disease  which  had  formerly  tortured  her  body. 


PRINCIPLE  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  127 

While  held  in  this  state  she  still  ascribed  her  cure  to 
Quimby.  His  thought,  his  personality,  was  still 
obtruding  itself  between  her  and  God.  He  was 
squarely  in  the  light.  Her  religious  peace,  her  faith, 
her  spiritual  being  were  threatened.  Her  anguish 
was  intolerable  and  to  no  one  could  she  turn  for 
counsel  to  obtain  relief. 

Out  of  this  smothered  torment  in  which  she 
sounded  a  deeper  hell  than  Calvinists  had  ever 
imagined,  she  was  lifted  suddenly  by  a  physical 
shock  which  set  her  free  for  her  great  discovery  and 
revelation.  This  shock  was  caused  by  an  accident 
which  carried  her  to  death's  door  and  from  which 
she  recovered  in  what  seems  a  miraculous  manner  on 
the  third  day  following. 

This  accident  has  been  called,  with  various  shades 
of  sentiment,  the  "fall"  in  Lynn.  To  many  thou- 
sands that  fall  with  its  subsequent  uplifting  has  been 
the  fall  of  their  own  torment,  mental  and  physical, 
and  the  uplifting  of  their  lives  with  Mary  Baker 
Eddy's.  The  incident  or  event,  as  one  may  look 
upon  it  according  to  his  own  experience,  was  re- 
corded in  the  Lynn  Reporter  of  Saturday  morning, 
February  3,  1866,  as  follows : 

Mrs.  Mary  Patterson  of  Swampscott  fell  upon 
the  ice  near  the  corner  of  Market  and  Oxford  streets 
on  Thursday  evening  and  was  severely  injured. 
She  was  taken  up  in  an  insensible  condition  and 
carried  into  the  residence  of  S.  M.  Bubier,  Esq., 
nearby,  where  she  was  kindly  cared  for  during  the 
night.  Dr.  Gushing,  who  was  called,  found  her 
injuries    to   be   internal   and   of   a   severe   nature, 


128  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

inducing  spasms  and  internal  suffering.  She  was 
removed  to  her  home  in  Swampscott  yesterday 
afternoon,  though  in  a  very  critical  condition. 

When  this  fall  occurred  Mrs.  Patterson  was 
returning  to  her  home  from  some  meeting  of  the 
organization  of  Good  Templars.  A  party  of  the 
lodge  members  was  walking  with  her.  She  was  in 
the  full  tide  of  that  life  which  she  had  taken  upon  her- 
self as  a  duty,  but  which  lay  so  far  apart  from  the 
path  her  conscience  would  have  had  her  follow.  In 
the  midst  of  apparent  light-hearted  social  gaiety  she 
slipped  on  the  ice  and  was  thrown  violently.  The 
party  stood  aghast,  but  soon  lifted  her  and  carried 
her  into  a  house,  where  it  was  seen  that  she  was 
seriously  injured.  Then  certain  of  them  volunteered 
to  sit  by  her  bedside  during  the  night.  When  the 
physician  arrived  he  said  little,  but  his  face  and 
manner  conveyed  more  than  his  words.  It  was 
apparent  to  the  watchers  that  he  regarded  her 
injuries  as  extremely  grave  and  they  believed  him 
to  imply  that  the  case  might  terminate  fatally.  But 
Divine  Will  had  another  fate  in  view  for  Mary 
Baker. 

Forty  years  after  this  event  Alvin  M.  Cushing, 
who  was  the  physician,  began  to  say  that  it  was  he, 
and  not  God,  who  cured  Mrs.  Patterson  of  her 
injuries  after  the  fall.  So  high  a  claim  in  dispute  is 
worthy  of  examination.  Dr.  Cushing  states  that  he 
was  called  because  he  was  the  physician  of  the  hour, 
"was  in  the  swim."  He  states  that  he  administered 
a  remedy  which  he  calls  the  third  decimal  attenua- 
tion of  arnica  which  he  diluted  in  a  glass  of  water. 


PRINCIPLE  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  129 

He  relates  that  Mrs.  Patterson  was  taken  up  un- 
conscious and  remained  unconscious  during  the 
night  and  he  beUeved  her  to  be  suffering  from  a 
concussion,  and  possibly  spinal  dislocation. 

On  the  following  morning,  having  visited  her 
twdce  during  the  night,  he  found  her  still  semi- 
conscious but  moaning  "home,  home."  He  there- 
fore administered  one  eighth  of  a  grain  of  morphine 
as  a  palliative  and  not  a  curative,  and  procured  a 
long  sleigh  in  which  she  was  laid  wrapped  in  fur 
robes  and  carefully  driven  to  her  suburban  residence. 

This  physician  says  he  afterwards  prescribed  a 
more  highly  attenuated  remedy  which  he  himself 
diluted  in  a  glass  of  water  and  of  which  he  gave  the 
patient  a  teaspoonful.  He  does  not  know  whether 
she  took  more  of  it  or  not,  but  when  he  called  again 
she  was  in  a  perfectly  normal  condition  of  health 
and  walked  across  the  floor  to  show  that  she  was 
cured.  He  does  not  remember  being  told  anything 
at  the  time  of  a  miraculous  cure  through  the  power 
of  prayer.  But  he  was,  according  to  his  own  remi- 
niscence, an  unusually  popular  man  at  the  time,  and 
had  sixty  patients  a  day.  He  drove  a  dashing  pair 
of  trotters,  and  was  much  in  evidence  on  the  speed- 
way when  not  in  the  consulting  room.  It  is  possible 
he  was  told  of  the  manner  of  the  cure,  that  he  did 
congratulate  his  patient  and  then  forgot  the  incident. 
But  one  thing  he  did  not  forget,  for  he  claims  to 
have  it  in  his  memoranda,  and  that  is  the  remedy  he 
prescribed.  He  doubtless  wrote  it  down  in  his 
tablets  that  the  third  decimal  attenuation  of  arnica 
had  marvelous  curative  properties  for  a  concussion 

9 


130  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

of  the  brain  and  spinal  dislocation  with  prolonged 
unconsciousness  and  spasmodic  seizures  as  con- 
current symptoms. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  account  of  this  accident  differs  from 
the  physician's  and  she  believes  she  knows  what 
healed  her  and  how  she  was  healed  and  when  it 
occurred.  She  was  not  responsible  for  the  calling  of 
the  physician  and  only  took  his  medicine  when  she 
was  roused  into  semi-consciousness  to  have  it 
administered,  of  which  she  has  no  recollection. 
After  the  doctor's  departure  on  Friday,  however, 
she  refused  to  take  the  medicine  he  had  left,  and  as 
she  has  expressed  it,  lifted  her  heart  to  God.  On 
the  third  day,  which  was  Sunday,  she  sent  those  who 
were  in  her  room  away,  and  taking  her  Bible,  opened 
it.  Her  eyes  fell  upon  the  account  of  the  healing  of 
the  palsied  man  by  Jesus. 

"It  was  to  me  a  revelation  of  Truth,"  she  has 
written.  "The  lost  chord  of  Truth,  healing  as  of 
old.  I  caught  this  consciously  from  the  Divine 
Harmony.  The  miracles  recorded  in  the  Bible 
which  had  before  seemed  to  me  supernatural,  grew 
divinely  natural  and  apprehensible.  Adoringly  I 
discerned  the  principle  of  His  holy  heroism  and 
Christian  example  on  thie  cross  when  he  refused  to 
drink  the  vinegar  and  the  gall,  a  preparation  of 
poppy  or  aconite,  to  allay  the  tortures  of  the 
crucifixion."  * 

A  spiritual  experience  so  deep  was  granted  her 
that  she  realized  eternity  in  a  moment,  infinitude 
in  limitation,  life  in  the  presence  of  death.     She 

^  Chrutuin  Science  Journal,  June,  1887. 


PRINCIPLE  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  131 

could  not  utter  words  of  prayer ;  her  spirit  realized. 
She  knew  God  face  to  face;  she  "touched  and' 
handled  things  unseen."  In  that  moment  all  pain 
evanesced  into  bliss,  all  discord  in  her  physical 
body  melted  into  harmony,  all  sorrow  was  trans- 
lated into  rapture.  She  recognized  this  state  as  her 
rightful  condition  as  a  child  of  God.  Love  invaded 
her,  life  lifted  her,  truth  irradiated  her.  God  said  to,, 
her,  "Daughter,  arise!" 

Mrs.  Patterson  arose  from  her  bed,  dressed  and 
walked  into  the  parlor  where  a  clergyman  and  a  few 
friends  had  gathered,  thinking  it  might  be  for  the 
last  words  on  earth  with  the  sufferer  who,  they 
believed,  was  dying.  They  arose  in  consternation 
at  her  appearance,  almost  believing  they  beheld  an 
apparition.  She  quietly  reassured  them  and  ex- 
plained the  manner  of  her  recovery,  calling  upon 
them  to  witness  it.  They  were  the  first  doubters. 
They  were  there  on  the  spot;  they  had  withdrawn 
but  a  short  time  since  from  what  they  supposed 
was  her  death-bed.  She  stood  before  them  fully 
restored  to  health.  They  shook  their  heads  in 
amazed  confusion.  Although  the  clergyman  and 
his  wife  rejoiced  with  her,  they  could  not  com- 
prehend her  statements.  But  for  all  the  dissent  of 
the  opinion  of  friends,  and  later  of  medicine  and 
theological  dogma,  Mrs.  Patterson  escaped,  if  not 
death,  the  clutches  of  lingering  illness  and  suffer- 
ing. 

Mary  Baker  did  more  than  experience  a  cure.? 
She  in  that  hour  received  a  revelation  for  which  she 
had  been  preparing  her  heart  in  every  event  of  her 


132  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

life.  She  had  really  walked  straight  toward  this 
revelation,  though  seemingly  through  a  backward- 
turning  path.  The  backward-turning  was  a  part  of 
the  marvelous  fitting  of  her  nature,  the  enlighten- 
ment of  her  mind  for  the  immense  service  later  of 
delineating  the  counterfeit  of  spiritual  healing  and 
to  post  the  warning  signs  against  the  dangers  of 
hypnotism.    She  herself  has  written  of  the  discovery : 

In  the  year  1866  I  discovered  the  Christ  Science, 
or  divine  laws  of  Life,  and  named  it  Christian 
Science.  God  had  been  graciously  fitting  me,  dur- 
ing many  years,  for  the  reception  of  a  final  revela- 
tion of  the  absolute  divine  Principle  of  scientific 
being  and  healing.^ 

When  apparently  near  the  confines  of  mortal 
existence,  standing  already  within  the  shadow  of 
the  death  valley,  I  learned  these  truths  in  divine 
Science:  that  all  real  being  is  in  God,  the  divine 
Mind,  and  that  Life,  Truth,  and  Love  are  all- 
powerful  and  ever-present;  that  the  opposite  of 
Truth,  —  called  error,  sin,  sickness,  disease,  death, 
—  is  the  false  testimony  of  false  material  sense  — 
of  life  in  matter;  that  this  false  sense  evolves,  in 
belief,  a  subjective  state  of  mortal  mind  which  this 
same  so-called  mind  names  matter,  thereby  shut- 
ting out  the  true  sense  of  Spirit.^ 

Of  the  great  discoveries  in  the  world's  history  it 
may  be  well  to  consider  a  moment  which  have  blessed 
the  human  race  most.  The  discovery  of  gunpowder 
and  the  invention  of  movable  types  came  in  about 
the  same  period.  The  discovery  of  the  use  of  ether 
as  an  anesthetic  and  the  discovery  of  Mind-Science 

>  "  Science  and  Health,"  p.  107.  '  Ibid.,  p.  108. 


PRINCIPLE   OF   CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  133 

also  occurred  in  relatively  the  same  period.  What- 
ever appeals  to  the  senses  gains  an  audience  with 
humanity  more  quickly  than  the  gentler,  more  insist- 
ent appeal  to  the  intelligence.  Yet  the  former  palls 
and  dies,  and  the  latter  nourishes  and  lives.  Hate, 
war,  and  death  astound  us  and  fill  us  with  consterna- 
tion; thought,  love,  and  life  come  unawares  like 
dawn  and  grow  tenderly,  gently  into  meaning, 
blessedness,  and  power.  Gunpowder  created  a 
special  hell,  movable  types  the  blessedness  of 
literature.  Ether  anesthesia  brought  in  its  train  an 
elaborated  surgery;  Mind-Science  has  begun  to 
abolish  the  necessity  of  surgery,  healing  of  itself  the 
lame,  the  blind,  the  deaf;  teaching  mothers  to  bear 
children  without  pain,  children  to  grow  normally 
without  malformation,  men  and  women  to  abandon 
evil  habits  which  bring  consumption,  scrofula, 
leprosy;  nations  to  abandon  wars  which  slaughter 
and  cripple  and  leave  a  heritage  of  poverty  and 
disease,  —  slowly  but  surely  it  works  its  way  like 
civilization  transforming  savagery  and  the  jungle. 
It  is  as  fundamentally  incontrovertible  as  the  axiom 
that  truth  is  eternal,  or  that  error  dies  of  its  own 
nature. 

This  great  discovery  depended  largely  on  the  fall 
of  Mary  Baker  in  Lynn,  causing  her  to  grapple  with 
the  violence  of  magnetism,  rousing  her  from  a 
mesmeric  lethargy,  and  bringing  to  her  developed 
spiritual  nature  the  understanding  of  the  principle 
of  life.  There  was  an  interval  before  she  could 
demonstrate  what  dawned  upon  her  in  that  hour. 
When   the  apple  fell   for  Newton  and   the  kettle 


134  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

steamed  for  Watts,  natural  scientific  truth  dawned 
on  them,  but  each  must  apply  himself  to  make  clear 
his  conception  through  years  of  careful  elucidation 
and  working  out  to  a  demonstrable  point  his 
scientific  statement  of  principle.    Mrs.  Eddy  writes : 

My  discovery  that  erring,  mortal,  misnamed 
mind  produces  all  the  organism  and  action  of  the 
mortal  body,  set  my  thoughts  to  work  in  new  chan- 
nels, and  led  up  to  my  demonstration  of  the  proposi- 
tion that  Mind  is  All  and  matter  is  naught,  as  the 
leading  force  in  Mind-science.^ 

Indeed  her  thoughts  were  to  work  in  new  channels. 
She  had  risen  as  it  were  from  death.  Her  friends 
immediately  set  up  an  argument  that  she  was  self- 
deluded,  that  she  ought  to  be  flat  upon  her  back,  that 
she  was  defying  the  laws  of  nature.  This  clamor  of 
fear  had  a  temporaiy  effect  upon  her ;  it  bewildered 
her  into  some  doubt  of  her  ability  to  maintain  her 
discovery,  even  into  some  doubt  as  to  its  basis  in 
truth.  Two  weeks  after  she  had  risen  from  her  pros- 
tration she  wrote  a  letter  which  was  a  last  backward 
glance  to  Quimby  and  Quimbyism,  —  and  yet  a 
letter  which  sounded  the  small  notes  of  the  clarion. 
The  letter  was  written  to  a  former  patient  of 
Quimby,  for  Quimby  was  now  dead.  He  had  died 
the  preceding  month  and  could  not  again  obtrude 
his  unformulated  theories  between  her  mind  and  its 
own  spiritual  apprehensions.  Her  discovery  waited 
for  her  full  comprehension  and  acknowledgement. 
Yet  she  wrote  a  letter  which,  had  it  been  answered 

»  "Science  and  Health."  p.  108. 


PRINCIPLE  OF   CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  135 

differently,  might  have  taken  her  back  into  animal 
magnetism  and  the  confusion  of  hypnotism. 

In  the  letter  she  describes  her  accident  and  says 
that  the  physician  attending  her  had  said  that  she 
had  taken  the  last  step  she  ever  would,  yet  in  three 
days  she  had  gotten  up  from  her  bed  and  would  walk. 
She  says  "I  confess  I  am  frightened,  and  out  of 
that  nervous  heat  my  friends  are  forming,  spite  of 
me,  the  terrible  spinal  affection  from  which  I  have 
suffered  so  long  and  hopelessly.  Now  can't  you 
help  me  ?  I  believe  you  can.  I  think  I  could  help 
another  in  my  condition." 

To  this  request  the  former  patient  replied  that  he 
did  not  know  how  Quimby  had  performed  his  cures 
and  doubted  if  any  one  did.  He  distinctly  declined 
the  task  of  reviving  Quimbyism  or  attempting  to 
stand  in  the  shoes  of  the  mesmerist.  So  there  was 
a  closed  door  against  that  refuge  from  her  own 
responsibility,  a  refuge  which  had  presented  itself 
to  her  mind  as  a  last  temptation.  Quimby  was 
dead;  Quimbyism  had  perished  with  him.  No 
one  remained  of  those  who  had  gathered  round  him 
in  life  to  perpetuate  his  peculiar  influence.  Her 
fall  had  destroyed  the  very  work  she  had  so  long 
credited  him  with.  Everything  must  begin  anew 
for  her ;  life  must  be  made  completely  over.  She 
was  forced  to  turn  to  God. 

Her  whole  environment  was  about  to  be  changed, 
for  she  was  to  be  left  without  family  and  with  the 
barest  means  of  subsistence.  Her  faith  faltered,  her 
limbs  trembled,  but  backward  she  could  not  go. 
It  dawned  upon  her  more  and  more  insistently  that 


136  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

God  had  laid  a  work  upon  her.  The  truth  of 
spiritual  being  had  illumined  her  and  to  acquaint 
humanity  with  this  truth  became  imperative. 

Some  years  after  this  period,  when  her  work  had 
begun  to  make  headway,  the  patient  of  Quimby  to 
whom  she  had  written  came  forward  to  harass  her 
with  a  pamphlet  in  which  he  displayed  her  former 
eulogies  of  Quimby  and  her  letter  to  him  asking  him 
to  take  up  Quimby's  work.  She  replied  to  this 
pamphleteer  in  the  article  on  "Mind  Healing 
History"  in  the  Christian  Science  Journal,  from 
which  a  quotation  is  given  in  regard  to  the  manu- 
script controversy.    In  it  she  says: 

Was  it  an  evil  hour  when  I  exchanged  poetry 
for  Truth,  grasped  in  some  degree  the  understand- 
ing of  Truth  and  undertook  at  all  hazards  to  bless 
them  that  cursed  me  ?  Was  it  an  evil  hour  when  I 
discovered  Christian  Science  Mind-healing  and 
gave  to  the  world  in  my  work  called  "Science  and 
Health"  the  leaves  that  are  for  the  "healing  of  the 
nations."  Was  it  for  some  strange  reason  that  the 
impulse  came  upon  me  to  endure  all  things  for 
Truth's  sake  ?  Does  ceaseless  servitude  while 
treading  the  thorny  path  alone  and  for  others'  sake 
arise  from  a  purely  selfish  motive  ?  After  the  death 
of  the  so-called  originator  of  mind-healing  it  re- 
quired ten  years  of  nameless  experience  for  me  to 
reach  the  standpoint  of  my  first  edition  of  "Science 
and  Health."  It  was  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Quimby 
and  when  I  was  apparently  at  the  door  of  death 
that  I  made  the  discovery  of  the  Principle  of  Divine 
Science.  After  that  it  took  ten  years  of  hard  work 
before  the  first  edition  of  "Science  and  Health"  was 
published  in  1875.^ 

*  Christian  Science  Journal,  June,  1887, 


PRINCIPLE  OF  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE  137 

Mary  Baker  very  shortly  began  to  walk  the 
"thorny  path"  of  which  she  writes,  began  the 
"nameless  experience"  with  its  incidents  of  painful 
humiliation  which  she  has  never  recounted  or 
disclosed.  She  has  covered  this  period  with  the 
brief  statement  that  she  retired  for  a  time  from  the 
world  to  carry  out  the  work  which  was  before  her. 
The  first  painful  incident  came  quickly  on  the  heels 
of  the  illness  resulting  from  the  fall.  Shortly  after 
her  recovery,  Mrs.  Patterson's  remarkable  experi- 
ence centered  her  attention  fully  upon  the  philoso- 
phy of  religion.  She  determined  that  she  would 
state  the  principle  of  health  and  life  and  that  she 
would  devote  her  pen  to  that  purpose;  she  would 
no  longer  write  for  money  or  fame,  but  abandon 
herself  utterly  to  this  great  cause. 

Dr.  Patterson's  reaction  to  the  resolution  of  his 
wife  was  characteristic.  His  response  to  her  un- 
worldliness  was  entirely  worldly.  He  left  Lynn 
mysteriously,  deserting  her,  and  not  only  did  he 
leave  her  but  he  did  so  shamefully.  He  eloped  with 
the  wife  of  a  wealthy  citizen  who  had  employed  his 
services  professionally.  Sometime  after  the  partner 
of  his  adventure  came  to  the  house  where  Mrs. 
Patterson  was  living  and  asked  to  see  her.  Mrs. 
Patterson  received  the  repentant  woman  kindly  and 
listened  to  her  story.  The  woman  said  she  had 
presumed  to  come  to  beg  forgiveness  and  sue  her  for 
a  favor  because  Dr.  Patterson  had  so  often  spoken 
of  his  wife's  religiousness.  The  favor  she  had  to 
beg  of  the  woman  she  had  wronged  was  that  she 
would  make  intercession  for  her  with  the  deserted 


138  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

husband  that  she  might  go  home.  This  Mrs. 
Patterson  undertook  to  do  and  succeeded  in  bringing 
about  a  complete  reconciHation.  She  even  per- 
suaded the  husband  to  forego  a  plan  he  had  for 
confining  his  wife  to  her  apartment  for  a  period  of 
penance,  and  by  such  persuasion  so  induced  this 
man  to  allow  sweetness  and  light  to  prevail  that  his 
home  was  thereafter  a  happy  one.  This  was  the 
second  time  in  her  life  that  she  performed  the 
oflBce  of  peacemaker  for  a  woman  who  had  been 
party  to  the  desecration  of  her  own  home. 

The  summer  months  of  1866  were  for  Mary 
Baker  a  time  of  reconstructing  and  dedication  of  her 
life.  Her  husband  had  gone,  gone  forever.  She 
could  no  longer  in  reason  contemplate  a  life  with 
him.  He  came  back  to  ask  forgiveness  after  the 
elopement;  it  was  in  his  nature  to  do  that,  for  to 
him  there  was  no  finality  to  the  good-will  he  ex- 
pected, however  great  his  offense.  But  his  wife  did 
jjw  "  not  receive  him.  "The  same  roof  cannot  shelter 
\v«  ■  ^s,"  she  said  quietly.  "You  may  come  in,  certainly, 
if  you  desire,  but  in  that  case  I  must  go  elsewhere." 
He  stood  fumbling  with  his  hat  upon  the  doorstep 
and  then  placed  it  upon  his  head.  "Of  what  use 
would  that  be,  Mary.?"  he  faltered.  "No,  it  is  I 
who  will  go." 

Dr.  Patterson  thereafter  roamed  from  town  to 
town  in  New  England,  falling  from  the  social 
standard  of  conduct  on  various  occasions  and  losing 
social  caste  by  degrees,  until  he  was  forbidden  houses 
which  had  at  first  received  him  and,  losing  his  prac- 
tise when  well  begun  in  different  towns,  he  at  last 


PRINCIPLE   OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  139 

retired  to  live  the  life  of  a  hermit  in  Saco,  Maine. 
In  1873  Mrs.  Patterson  secured  a  decree  of  divorce 
from  him  in  the  courts  of  Salem,  Massachusetts. 
Directly  after  visiting  his  wife  for  the  last  time  he 
went  once  more  to  the  Tiltons.  Mark  Baker  was 
dead;  he  had  passed  away  the  preceding  autumn. 
Mrs.  Tilton  heard  the  dentist's  confession  in  silence. 
She  had  nothing  to  offer  by  way  of  advice  for  the 
patching  up  of  difficulties.  She  saw  they  had  reached 
a  climax.  But  her  practical  mind  made  one  sugges- 
tion as  the  amende  honorable  for  the  husband,  that 
he  should  settle  some  sum,  however  meager,  on 
Mary  and  not  leave  her  utterly  destitute.  To  this 
the  doctor  agreed  and  a  sum  was  fixed  upon  to  be 
paid  twice  a  year.  This  was  continued  a  few  years, 
until  Mrs.  Patterson  refused  longer  to  accept  it. 

When  the  doctor  had  taken  his  departure, 
Abigail  wrote  to  her  sister  to  come  home.  "We  will 
build  a  house  for  you  next  to  our  own  and  settle  an 
income  upon  you,"  she  said.  "You  shall  have 
suitable  surroundings  and  not  be  annoyed  by  the 
friction  of  life  in  another  home  than  your  own.  We 
can  be  together  very  much,  and  you  can  pursue  your 
writing.  There  is  only  one  thing  I  ask  of  you,  Mary, 
that  you  give  up  these  ideas  which  have  lately 
occupied  you,  that  you  attend  our  church  and  give 
over  your  theory  of  divine  healing." 

To  this  Mary  Baker  had  but  one  reply,  "I  must 
do  the  work  God  has  called  me  to."  But  Abigail 
did  not  believe  her  sister.  She  decided  to  let  her 
alone  for  a  time.  She  felt  sure  that  the  grip  of 
poverty,  the  silence  of  her  family,  the  desertion  of 


140  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

her  husband  would  operate  in  time  to  bring  her  back 
to  the  old  relations.  She  wanted  her  sister,  but  not 
keenly  enough  as  yet  to  sacrifice  one  iota  of  her  pride. 
Her  boy  Albert  was  just  twenty-one,  handsome,  and 
a  bit  wayward ;  but  she  meant  to  master  that  and 
make  a  successful  man  of  him.  Her  daughter 
Evelyn  was  only  twelve,  delicate,  studious,  pious, 
the  idol  of  her  father.  She  had  great  hope  of  her 
future.  So  then  Mary,  the  sister,  was  after  all  out- 
side her  immediate  concern,  —  save  only  she  hoped 
Mary  did  not  mean  to  disgrace  them. 

Sometimes,  indeed,  she  had  inward  fears  lest  that 
strange  spiritual  genius  of  Mary's  really  would  make 
itself  felt  in  the  world  and  bring  the  reproach  of 
"queerness"  upon  them.  Up  to  this  hour  their 
family  had  been  conventional  New  Englanders, 
farmers,  manufacturers,  wealthy,  influential  and 
orthodox  both  in  politics  and  religion.  Mary  had 
3^  stood  out  for  abolition  when  it  was  unpopular  and 
fanatical  to  do  so.  Her  difference  had  made  the 
townspeople  talk  years  before.  She  had  proclaimed 
curious  religious  ideas  when  she  was  last  at  home, 
ideas  that  had  made  the  ladies  of  the  sewing  circle 
wonder  and  gossip.  Perhaps  after  all  it  was  as  well 
that  Mary  should  wear  out  her  theories  among 
strangers.  Some  day  she  would  come  back  to  them 
and  they  would  take  care  of  her.  So  thought 
Abigail  Tilton,  reckoning  and  weighing  the  con- 
tents of  the  situation  with  a  mind  of  worldly 
prudence. 

Poor  Abigail.  Husband  and  children  were  to  be 
taken  from  her,  too.    Strangers  who  thought  mainly 


PRINCIPLE  OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  141 

of  her  fortune  were  to  flatter  her  in  her  declinins: 
years  of  dictation,  until  dictation  was  no  longer  a 
joy.  And  pride  which  had  separated  her  from  her 
beloved  sister  so  long  kept  her  from  imparting  her 
last  farewell  to  the  one  whom  she  truly  loved  deepest 
and  best. 

So  Mary  Baker  sat  alone  through  these  summer 
months.  She  had  her  saddest  thoughts  to  scan  at 
the  beginning  and  not  the  close  of  her  career,  for  to 
her  this  was  truly  the  beginning.  She  was  forty-five 
years  old  and  had  lived  through  the  experiences  of 
more  than  a  normal  life.  Let  no  one  think  that  even 
the  greatest  philosopher  could  contemplate  the  ruin 
of  so  many  earthly  hopes  without  heart  pangs.  Her 
child,  long  ago  alienated  from  her  by  wile  and  subter- 
fuge, was  now  a  man  roaming  through  the  wild  life 
of  the  West;  the  husband  who  had  promised  so 
much  had  gone  in  disgrace  to  live  out  his  aimless 
whims  for  many  years  and  die  alone  in  his  hermit's 
hut.  Her  parents  were  both  gone  and  her  sister  was 
obdurately  set  against  the  deep  faith  of  her  heart. 
Without  worldly  resources  or  even  the  social  status  of 
recognized  widowhood,  deserted  by  all  who  should 
have  cherished  her,  might  she  not  with  sanction  lay 
her  head  low  to  mourn .? 

Whether  for  many  days  or  weeks  she  thought  on 
these  things,  certain  it  is  that  this  same  year  saw 
her  gathering  up  the  strands,  strengthening  her 
heart  with  courage,  accepting  her  mission,  and 
venturing  forth  steadfastly  upon  her  destiny  never 
again  to  turn  back.  From  this  year  the  story  of 
Mary   Baker's   life   deals   with   religion.     She   has 


142  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

^  M*^'  given  up  family  for  voluntary  poverty,  society  for 
the  contemplation  of  a  new  faith.  She  will  for  a  time 
nourish  this  truth,  elucidate  it  to  her  own  mind  with 
her  pen,  to  her  own  heart  with  prayer,  and  in  a 
decade  will  begin  the  work  of  promulgation. 


CHAPTER    XI 

THE  TEST   OF   EXPERIENCE 

FOR  three  years  after  my  discovery  I  sought 
the  solution  of  this  probleni  of  Mind-heaUng; 
searched  the  Scriptures,  read  Uttle  else;  kept  aloof 
from  society,  and  devoted  time  and  energies  to  discov- 
ering a  positive  rule.  The  search  was  sweet,  calm, 
and  buoyant  with  hope,  not  selfish  nor  depressing. 
I  knew  the  Principle  of  all  harmonious  Mind-action 
to  be  God,  and  that  cures  were  produced,  in  primi- 
tive Christian  healing,  by  holy,  uplifting  faith;  but 
I  must  know  its  Science,  and  I  won  my  way  to  ab- 
solute conclusions,  through  divine  revelation,  rea- 
son, and  demonstration.  The  revelation  of  Truth 
in  the  understanding  came  to  me  gradually,  and 
apparently  through  divine  power.^ 

After  a  lengthy  examination  of  my  discovery, 
and  its  demonstration  in  healing  the  sick,  this  fact 
became  evident  to  me,  —  that  Mind  governs  the 
body,  not  partially,  but  wholly.  I  submitted  my 
metaphysical  system  of  treating  disease  to  the 
broadest  practical  tests.^ 

Mrs.  Patterson  had  boarded  with  her  husband  in 
several  places  in  Lynn  and  Swampscott.  She  had 
made  a  few  excellent  friends  who  were  steadfast  in 
their  interest  and  loyalty  through  the  hardships 
which  were  to  befall  her  in  the  next  few  years.    Of 

»  "Science  and  Health,"  p.  109.  »  Ibid.,  p.  111. 


144  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

these  friends  none  were  more  devoted  than  the 
PhiUipses,  an  excellent  Quaker  family.  Mr.  Thomas 
PhiUips  was  a  manufacturer  of  shoe-findings  and 
lived  with  his  family  in  Buffum  street. 

Mary  Baker  was  very  devoted  to  this  elderly 
couple  whom  she  called  by  the  endearing  names  of 
"Uncle  Thomas"  and  "Aunt  Hannah."  Their 
home  became  a  refuge  to  her  in  the  summer  of 
1866.  She  did  not  live  with  them,  but  boarded  with 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  George  D.  Clark  of  Summer  street. 
The  Clarks  lived  in  their  own  home,  taking  in  board- 
ers to  increase  their  income.  They  were  a  kindly, 
social  family.  In  their  home  Mrs.  Patterson  had 
solitude  when  she  desired  it,  and  a  friendly  demo- 
cratic society  when  she  felt  the  human  yearning  for 
sympathetic  interest  in  other  lives.  For  such  inde- 
pendence and  comparative  comfort  the  charges  were 
not  heavy.  Indeed  she  could  not  possibly  have  met 
them  had  they  been  so,  for  her  purse  was  but  scantily 
furnished  at  this  time. 

But  to  the  PhiUips  home  in  Buffum  street  she  fled 
for  true  social  and  spiritual  companionship.  They 
were  of  that  excellent  breeding  which  comes  of  true 
piety,  and  they  cherished  this  stricken  woman,  too 
proud  to  admit  herself  desolate  among  strangers,  as 
a  very  lamb  of  the  Lord.  Their  aged  mother  lived 
with  them.  She  was  a  saintly  Quaker,  who  had 
passed  her  ninetieth  year,  and  as  the  years  rolled 
by  and  she  Hved  on  toward  the  close  of  her  century 
of  human  experience,  she  grew  weary  of  earth.  She 
would  sometimes  say  with  gentle  impatience,  "I 
fear  the  good  Father  hath  forgotten  me."    One  day 


THE  TEST  OF  EXPERIENCE  145 

stie  refused  to  rise  from  her  bed,  and  said  to  her 
children,  *'Thee  need  never  bring  my  gown  again." 
She  was  determined  to  go,  and  so  she  slept  sweetly 
out  of  this  world's  life. 

But  before  that  calm  change  came  upon  her,  she 
spent  many  hours  with  Mary  Baker,  hours  of  mu- 
tual consolation  and  uplifting.  These  two  women, 
between  whom  yawned  a  half  century,  loved  each 
other  tenderly,  calling  one  another  by  her  Christian 
name,  which  in  both  cases  was  Mary.  Their  inter- 
course was  of  a  heavenly  sweetness.  They  would 
sit  side  by  side  on  a  sofa  with  hands  clasped,  some- 
times conversing  and  sometimes  meditating.  Mr. 
Phillips,  returning  home  and  finding  them  there, 
would  call  his  wife  and  say,  "Hannah,  do  you  see 
our  two  saints.^  There  they  sit  together,  the  two 
Marys." 

In  this  house  silent  prayer  was  the  custom  before 
eating.  Mary  Baker  yielded  to  this  custom  with 
great  reverence,  often  saying  it  seemed  to  her  like 
a  holy  communion.  With  Mr.  Phillips  she  had  fre- 
quent conversation  about  her  religious  views  and 
her  healing  experience,  delineating  for  him  the  fea- 
tures of  her  discovery,  stating  the  principle  to  be 
Divine  Life  operating  in  human  consciousness.  He 
was  the  first  to  listen  to  her  intelligently;  he  was 
the  first  to  see  that  she  was  depicting  a  new  mental 
state  that  would  elevate  all  human  existence.  Upon 
the  aged  grandmother  her  words  fell  like  dew,  gra- 
ciously accepted  as  pious  utterances,  but  scarcely 
understood.  Upon  other  members  of  the  family 
they  made  but  slight  impression  and,  were  it  not 

10 


146  THE  LIFE  OF  IVIARY  BAKER  EDDY 

that  they  loved  their  guest,  they  would  have  been 
guilty  of  an  occasional  smile  of  incredulity. 

Incredulity  there  must  have  been  among  them. 
A  daughter  of  the  house  is  to-day  a  Christian 
Scientist.  She  was  not  a  believer  in  these  ideas  for 
many  years  —  not  indeed  until  after  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  long  passed  out  of  her  hfe  with  the  death  of 
her  parents.  She  has  related  to  the  author  her 
father's  impressions  of  the  future  founder  of  Chris- 
tian Science.  In  rebuking  their  unbelief  he  voiced 
a  prophecy  by  saying:  "Mary  is  a  wonderful 
woman,  Susie.  You  will  find  it  out  some  day.  I 
may  not  live  to  see  it,  but  you  will." 

This  daughter  Susan  married  George  Oliver,  and 
in  her  own  home  often  entertained  Mrs.  Patterson. 
Her  husband  was  a  business  man  with  a  growing 
shoe  trade  which  actively  engaged  his  mind.  He 
would,  however,  neglect  to  return  to  his  business 
for  hours  if  Mary  Baker  happened  to  be  at  his 
home  for  luncheon. 

"I  cannot  understand  it,"  he  would  say  to  his 
wife  of  their  guest's  conversation,  "but  I  would 
rather  hear  Mrs.  Patterson  talk  than  make  a  big 
deal  in  business.  After  listening  to  her  arguments 
I  feel  some  way  as  though  I  would  be  the  better 
able  'to  cast  my  net  on  the  right  side.'" 

It  was  on  Susan  Oliver's  brother  Dorr,  then  a 
schoolboy,  that  Mrs.  Eddy  made  her  first  demon- 
stration of  Mind-science.  The  lad  had  a  bone 
felon  which  kept  him  awake  at  night  and  out  of 
school  during  the  day.  Mrs.  Patterson  had  not 
been  to  the  Phillips  house  for  several  days,  and 


THE  TEST  OF  EXPERIENCE  147 

when  she  did  go  and  found  the  boy  in  agony  walk- 
ing the  floor,  she  gently  and  sympathetically  ques- 
tioned him. 

"Dorr,  will  you  let  me  heal  that  felon?" 

"Yes,  indeed,  Mrs.  Patterson,  if  you  can  do  it," 
replied  the  lad. 

"Will  you  promise  not  to  do  anything  for  it  or 
let  any  one  else,  if  I  undertake  to  cure  it.?^" 

"Yes,  I  promise,  and  I  will  keep  my  word,"  said 
Dorr  Phillips.  He  had  heard  his  father  and  their 
friend  discuss  divine  healing  many  times,  and  had 
a  boy's  healthy  curiosity  to  see  what  would  happen 
if  all  this  talk  was  actually  tried  on  a  wicked,  tor- 
menting, festering  felon  that  was  making  him  fairly 
roar  with  rage  one  minute  and  cry  like  a  girl  the 
next. 

That  night  the  boy  stopped  at  his  sister  Susie's 
house.  "How  is  your  finger,"  she  asked  so- 
licitously. 

"Nothing  the  matter  with  my  finger;  it  hasn't 
hurt  all  day.    Mrs.  Patterson  is  treating  it." 

"What  is  she  doing  to  it.^     Let  me  look  at  it." 

"No,  you'll  spoil  the  cure.  I  promised  not  to 
look  at  it  or  think  about  it,  nor  let  any  one  else 
touch  it  or  talk  about  it.    And  I  won't." 

The  brother  and  sister  looked  at  each  other  with 
half  smiles.  They  were  strugghng  with  skepti- 
cism. 

"Honest,  Dorr,  don't  it  hurt .5^" 

"No." 

"Tell  me  what  she  did." 

"I  don't  know  what  she  did,  don't  know  anything 


148  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

about  this  business,  but  I'm  going  to  play  fair  and 
keep  my  word." 

The  boy  actually  forgot  the  felon  and  when  his 
attention  was  called  to  the  finger  it  was  found  to 
be  well.  This  strange  result  made  an  impression 
on  the  family.  No  one  quite  knew  what  to  say,  and 
they  were  scarcely  ready  to  accept  the  healing  of  a 
sore  finger  as  a  miracle. 

"But  it  is  not  a  miracle,"  said  Mary  Baker. 
*'Nor  would  it  be  if  it  had  been  a  broken  wrist  or 
a  withered  arm.  It  is  natural,  divinely  natural. 
All  life  rightly  understood  is  so." 

Mr.  Phillips  said  there  was  something  in  that 
which  he  could  not  understand,  and  there  it  rested. 
With  peace  restored  to  his  body,  Dorr  Phillips  for- 
got all  about  Divine  science. 

At  the  Oliver  home  lived  a  rich  young  man  from 
Boston  who  had  come  to  Lynn  to  learn  the  shoe 
business.  He  was  intense  and  active,  eager  to  show 
his  father  his  business  sagacity.  But  severe  appli- 
cation to  business  and  excitement  over  his  new 
responsibilities  threw  him  into  a  fever.  He  was 
brought  home  from  the  factory  and  put  *to  bed, 
where  he  promptly  lapsed  into  delirium.  The 
Olivers  saw  that  he  was  very  ill,  and  sent  for  his 
parents.  Before  they  arrived  Mrs.  Patterson  came 
to  the  house  and  found  Susan  Oliver  in  distress 
over  the  serious  situation. 

'If  he  should  die  before  they  come,  what  would  I 
do?"  she  asked  excitedly.  "Perhaps  I  should  call 
our  physician.  But  they  might  not  like  it.  He  is 
their  only  child.    Think  of  his  prospects,  his  father's 


THE  TEST  OF  EXPERIENCE  149 

fortune  —  and    for    him    to    be    stricken    in    this 
way!" 

"He  is  not  going  to  die,  Susie,"  said  Mary  Baker. 
"Let  me  go  in  and  see  him." 

"You  may  go  in,  if  you  think  best;  but  he  won't 
recognize  you,"  said  Mrs.  OUver. 

Mary  Baker  went  into  the  sick  chamber  and  sat 
down  at  the  side  of  the  bed.  The  young  man  was 
tossing  from  side  to  side,  thro"v\ing  his  arms  about 
wildly  and  moaning.  She  took  his  hand,  held  it 
firmly,  and  spoke  clearly  to  him,  calling  him  by  a 
familiar  name. 

"Bobbie,"  she  said,  "look  at  me.  You  know  me, 
don't  you.?" 

The  young  man  ceased  his  monotonous  moaning, 
his  tossing  on  the  pillows,  and  his  ejaculations.  He 
lay  quiet  and  gazed  steadfastly  at  the  newcomer. 

"Of  course  you  know  me,  Bobbie,"  she  persisted 
gently.     "Tell  me  my  name." 

"Why,  yes,"  he  said  with  perfect  sanity,  "it's 
Mrs.  Patterson."  In  a  few  minutes  he  said,  "I 
believe  I  will  go  to  sleep." 

He  did  go  to  sleep  and  waked  rational,  and  did 
not  again  have  delirium.  His  parents  came  and 
carried  the  boy  off  to  Boston  for  medical  attention. 
But  he  escaped  espionage  of  nurse  and  doctor,  and 
of  his  parents  also.  They  had  taken  him  to  the  old 
Revere  House,  where  they  were  living,  and  had  es- 
tablished him  comfortably  in  the  famous  Jenny 
Lind  room.  But  all  this  solicitation  could  not  hold 
him.  He  returned  to  Lynn  and  sent  word  of  his 
state   of   mind  and  whereabouts  to  the  distracted 


150  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

parents.  Mrs.  Patterson  had  made  him  well  in 
spite  of  the  physician's  declaration  that  he  was  in 
for  a  run  of  fever.  So  simply  was  the  youth's  re- 
lease from  fever  accomplished  that  none  who  knew 
of  the  case  would  credit  her  with  having  done  any- 
thing. However,  Mary  Baker  had  in  this  instance 
once  more  illustrated  her  discovery. 

Her  power  to  heal  the  sick  was  shown  once  again 
among  these  friends.  The  Charles  Winslows  of 
Ocean  street  were  related  to  the  Phillipses,  and  Mrs. 
Patterson  knew  them  as  intimately  as  she  knew  the 
Olivers.  Mrs.  Winslow  had  been  for  sixteen  years 
in  an  invalid  chair,  and  Mrs.  Patterson,  who  occa- 
sionally spent  an  afternoon  with  her,  desired  to 
heal  her. 

*'If  you  make  Abbie  walk,"  said  Charles  Winslow, 
"I  will  not  only  believe  your  theory,  but  I  will  re- 
ward you  liberally.  I  think  I  would  give  a  thousand 
dollars  to  see  her  able  to  walk." 

"The  demonstration  of  the  principle  is  enough 
reward,"  said  Mrs.  Patterson.  "I  know  she  can 
walk.  You  go  to  business  and  leave  us  alone 
together." 

"But  I  want  to  see  you  perform  your  cure,  Mary," 
said  Charles  Winslow,  half  mirthfully.  "Indeed,  I 
won't  interfere." 

"You  want  to  see  me  perform  a  cure,"  cried 
Mary  Baker,  with  a  flash  of  her  clear  eyes.  "But 
I  am  not  going  to  do  anything.  Why  don't  you 
understand  that  God  will  do  the  work  if  Mrs. 
Winslow  will  let  Him  ?  Leave  off  making  light  of 
what  is  a  serious  matter.    Your  wife  will  walk." 


THE  TEST  OF  EXPERIENCE  151 

And  Mrs.  Winslow  did  walk,  walked  along  the 
ocean  beach  with  Mary  Baker  and  around  her  own 
garden  in  the  beautiful  autumn  of  that  year.  She 
who  had  not  taken  a  step  for  sixteen  years  arose 
and  walked,  not  once  but  many  times.  Though  a 
wonderful  thing  had  been  accomplished,  the 
woman's  pride  kept  her  from  acknowledging  a 
cure.  The  method  seemed  so  ridiculously  inade- 
quate. To  accept  it  was  like  convicting  her  of  never 
having  been  ill.  So  she  returned  to  her  invalid 
chair. 

Such  were  some  of  the  first  results  of  Mary  Baker's 
efforts  to  prove  that  she  had  grasped  a  great  truth 
and  was  not  asserting  an  imaginary  doctrine  of 
fanciful  or  fanatical  origin.  She  began  to  see  in 
the  wilful  pride  of  one  patient,  the  scornful  re- 
jection of  her  services  by  the  parents  of  another, 
and  the  kindly  indifference  of  still  another,  who 
guessed  things  just  happened  so  when  you  were  not 
watching,  that  this  could  not  be  her  field  of  activity. 
But  she  had  at  her  very  door  abundant  opportunity 
among  the  humbler  shoe  workers.  The  Phillipses 
were  satisfied  with  their  religion  and  culture;  the 
Winslows  were  wealthy  and  secure  in  their  own 
well-being.  They  meant  to  be  her  friends  and  told 
her  that  the  world  would  say  she  was  mad  if  she 
continued  to  preach  divine  healing.  "It  is  better 
not  to  talk  of  it,"  they  said.  It  seemed  to  them  an 
unnatural  doctrine,  something  that  might  become 
an  awkward  topic  in  their  drawing-room,  some- 
thing that  this  interesting  woman  should  be  per- 
suaded to  forget. 


152  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Interesting  Mary  Baker  was,  more  interesting 
than  ever  in  her  Hfe,  with  a  strange  power  of  im- 
pressing the  world  with  the  wonder  of  things  which 
was  to  grow  more  and  more  a  part  of  her.  A  de- 
scription of  her  appearance  at  this  time  and  of  her 
daily  life  is  afforded  through  the  reminiscences  of 
George  Clark,  the  son  of  the  family  in  which  she 
was  boarding.  He  says  she  was  a  beautiful  woman 
with  the  complexion  of  a  young  girl,  her  skin  being 
fair,  the  color  often  glowing  in  her  cheeks  as  she 
talked;  her  eyes  were  deep  blue,  becoming  bril- 
liant and  large  under  emotional  interest,  and  her 
hair  falling  in  a  shower  of  brown  curls  about  her 
face. 

"She  usually  wore  black,"  says  Mr.  Clark,  "but 
occasionally  violet  or  pale  rose  in  some  arrangement 
of  her  dress.  And  I  remember  well  a  dove-colored 
gown  trimmed  with  black  velvet  that  she  wore  in 
the  summer.  I  remember  the  colors  because  she 
suggested  a  flower-like  appearance;  she  had  a  re- 
freshing simplicity  about  her  which  made  one  think 
of  lilies.  Yes,  that  is  the  very  flower,  because  she 
had  distinction,  too.  She  was  a  little  above  medium 
height,  slender,  and  graceful.  Usually  she  was  re- 
served, though  her  expression  was  never  forbidding. 
But  when  she  talked,  and  she  talked  very  well  and 
convincingly,  she  would  often  make  a  sweeping  out- 
ward gesture  with  her  right  hand,  as  though  giving 
her  thought  from  her  very  heart. 

"So  characteristic  were  her  gestures  that  I  would 
recognize  her  to-day  were  I  only  to  see  her  out- 
stretched hand.     She  sat  at  the  head  of  our  table, 


THE  TEST  OF  EXPERIENCE  153 

my  mother  occupying  the  center  of  one  side,  and  I, 
in  my  father's  absence,  the  opposite  seat.  From 
this  place  at  our  table  she  easily  dominated  atten- 
tion when  she  cared  to  talk,  and  she  was  always 
listened  to  with  interest.  Every  one  liked  and  ad- 
mired her,  though  sometimes  her  statements  would 
cause  a  protracted  argument. 

'*We  were  a  rather  mixed  household  and  were 
fourteen  at  table.  There  were  several  shoe  opera- 
tives from  the  factories,  a  salesman  or  two,  and  a 
man  who  has  since  become  a  well-known  bootmaker. 
There  was  a  painter  amongst  us,  who  afterwards  be- 
came a  successful  artist  in  landscape.  He  was  an 
argumentative  talker,  inclined  to  be  skeptical  of 
most  things.  The  wdves  of  several  of  the  men  were 
also  guests  at  table,  and  conversation  was  usually 
lively,  often  theological. 

"My  mother  had  been  a  Universalist,  but  she 
was  progressive  in  her  views,  a  come-outer,  as  you 
might  say.  She  was  much  interested  in  Spiritualism 
and  used  to  entertain  the  Spiritualists.  Seances 
were  sometimes  held  at  our  house.  Mrs.  Patterson 
sometimes  was  present  at  these  affairs  held  in  our 
parlor,  just  as  she  took  paTt  agreeably,  but  not  con- 
spicuously, in  any  social  gathering.  You  see  she 
liked  people,  liked  to  meet  them  unaffectedly  and 
kindly,  but,  mind  you,  always  with  that  air  of  dis- 
tinction, that  something  that  made  her  different.  I 
think  she  was  hungry  for  hearts,  if  I  may  so  express 
it,  but  she  would  draw  them  up  to  her  level  rather 
than  go  to  theirs. 

"On  days  succeeding  a  seance  my  mother  would 


154  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

often  leave  the  breakfast  room  with  the  ladies  to 
talk  over  the  doings  of  the  night  before  and  the  na- 
ture of  the  'phenomena.'  My  mother  and  Mrs. 
Patterson  would  occasionally  get  into  a  lively  argu- 
ment, and  both  expressed  themselves  most  posi- 
tively on  opposite  sides  of  the  question.  They  never 
fell  out  about  it,  for  they  were  both  too  well  used  to 
such  divergence  of  view  among  their  friends.  My 
mother  was  always  having  to  defend  her  views,  and 
indeed  so  was  Mrs.  Patterson.  They  respected  each 
other,  I  may  say  they  had  too  much  affection  to 
quarrel. 

*'But  their  arguments  were  highly  entertaining  to 
me,  and  I  often  wondered  how  persons  holding  such 
opposite  views  could  shake  hands  so  amiably  over 
their  differences.  I  was  a  youngster  and  felt  very 
important,  for  I  was  going  to  sea.  I  used  to  think 
that  when  I  came  back  from  seeing  the  world,  all 
these  religious  matters  would  have  become  of  no 
importance  to  me.  In  that  I  was  mistaken,  and  I 
fancy  now  that  the  arguments  going  on  there  at  my 
mother's  table  and  of  an  evening  when  some  of  the 
party  played  whist  and  others  gathered  around 
Mrs.  Patterson  were  the  everlasting  and  eternal 
arguments  of  our  lives,  and  that  a  prophet  was 
among  us  unawares."  ^ 

Among  the  boarders  in  this  mixed  and  highly 
democratic  household  were  Hiram  S.  Crafts  and 
his  wife.  The  former  was  known  as  an  expert  heel- 
finisher  in  the  shoe  factory.  He  possessed  an  ordi- 
nary intelligence,  a  common  school  education,  and 

*  Notes  from  a  conversation  with  Mr.  George  Clark  in  July,  1907. 


THE  TEST  OF  EXPERIENCE  155 

a  tendency  toward  transcendentalism.  This  tend- 
ency was  as  marked  a  characteristic  in  New  England 
middle-classes  during  the  middle  years  of  the  last 
century  as  Puritanism  was  in  England  during  the 
reign  of  Charles  I,  two  centuries  before.  It  made 
Unitarianism  and  Universalism  possible  as  an  out- 
growth of  Calvinism. 

It  may  appear  extravagant  to  credit  with  notions 
of  transcendentalism  a  shoe-worker  of  Lynn;  but 
in  great  mental  movements  in  a  nation  such  as  the 
American,  or  in  a  race  such  as  the  Anglo-Saxon,  his- 
tory has  shown  that  the  artisans,  craftsmen,  and 
farmers  share  in  the  intellectual  experience  of  the 
scholars,  if  that  experience  is  more  than  a  passing 
ripple.  This  is  especially  true  in  the  United  States. 
If  they  are  somewhat  later  than  the  scholars  in  ar- 
riving at  their  convictions,  the  sympathies  and  antip- 
athies of  the  laboring  class  go  deeper  and  are  more 
compelling.  Their  "feeling"  has  to  be  reckoned 
with.  Thus  it  will  be  recalled  that  Cromwell  sought 
religious  men  for  his  army,  knowing  that  unless 
armed  with  some  staying  convictions  his  common 
soldiers  could  never  stand  against  the  gentlemen 
and  cavaliers  of  the  forces  of  the  king. 

Transcendentalism  is  a  big  mouthful  of  a  descrip- 
tive ;  but  this  term  had  scholarly  origin,  being  Ger- 
manic, not  Yankee  or  British.  A  brief  history  of  the 
word  may  not  be  impertinent.  The  term  was  first 
applied  to  Kantian  philosophy  which  only  a  very 
exceptional  shoe-worker  of  New  England  could  have 
been  expected  to  read.  How  then  could  a  shoe- 
worker  acquire  tendencies  toward  such  speculations  ? 


156  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

But  the  philosophers  may  wrap  their  notions  in  very 
unusual  language  and  still  occasionally  coin  words 
the  vulgar  will  learn  to  handle,  Kant  used  this  word 
to  denote  intuitions  which  the  descendants  of  Puri- 
tans had  already  analyzed  before  Emerson  made 
the  word  transcendentalism  familiar  in  New  England 
as  Carlyle  did  in  old  England.  Thus  it  was  not  left 
for  the  Yankee  shoe-worker  to  dig  it  out  of  the 
Critique. 

A  little  before  the  Civil  War  broke  out,  in  the  late 
forties  and  early  fifties,  the  lyceum  system  became 
popular  in  America,  especially  in  New  England. 
Courses  of  lectures  were  instituted  in  the  small 
towns  as  well  as  in  the  large  cities,  and  the  latest 
thoughts  in  science,  art,  literature,  politics,  and  phi- 
losophy were  given  to  the  people.  How  democratic 
these  audiences  were  was  shown  in  results.  Now 
transcendentalism  in  both  religion  and  politics  began 
to  flourish.  The  working  people  were  ready  to  be- 
lieve something  in  religion  that  released  them  from 
the  pain  and  cramp  of  a  long-preached  doctrine  of 
inherent  total  depravity.  The  "rise  of  man"  was 
being  substituted  for  the  "fall  of  man"  and  the 
cramp  in  the  brain  and  the  ache  in  the  heart  were 
letting  go  their  clutch. 

Much  earlier  than  this  the  intellectual  world  had 
revolted  from  the  Calvinistic  "plan  of  salvation." 
WiUiam  Ellery  Channing  had  done  such  work  in 
Boston  that  Lyman  Beecher  left  his  parish  in  Eastern 
Massachussetts  in  1823  to  go  to  Boston  to  "con- 
front and  stay  the  movement" ;  and  he  shortly  wrote 
in  a  letter  that  "all  the  literary  men  of  Boston,  the 


THE  TEST  OF  EXPERIENCE  157 

professors  of  Harvard  College,  the  judges  on  the 
bench  are  Unitarian."  That  was  in  1823.  The 
movement  continued  among  the  scholars  and  in- 
tellectuals until  about  1836,  when  it  reached  the 
people  and  spread  like  contagion.  Elias  Hicks  be- 
came the  unorthodox  leader  of  the  Quakers,  and 
Hosea  Ballon  was  with  less  intellectual  difficulty 
attacking  the  Calvinistic  dogma  with  the  doctrine  of 
Universalism.  This  last  was  the  really  popular  re- 
action in  New  England.  Unitarianism  was  scholarly, 
Universalism  popular.  But  it  all  amounted  to  a  re- 
volt against  dogmatic  theology.  Channing  denied 
the  depravity  of  man  to  show  "how  capable  God 
had  made  him  of  righteousness."  He  was  the  center 
of  a  bitter  fight,  but  to-day  he  looks  calmly  down 
from  his  pedestal  in  the  Public  Garden  of  Boston, 
and  the  average  passer-by  may  wonder  why  he  is 
there.  Emerson  taught  that  the  revelations  God 
made  to  man  were  made  within  the  soul,  that  the 
soul  had  infinite  dignity  and  capacity,  that  trans- 
cendentalism was  an  experience  of  the  immanence 
of  God.  He  also  had  his  bitter  fights  with  the  col- 
lege men  —  all  forgotten  now  in  the  universal  rev- 
erence for  his  name.  Margaret  Fuller  described 
the  idea  of  transcendentalism  as  an  exalting  con- 
ception of  the  Godlike  nature  of  the  human  spirit. 

Now  it  must  be  remembered  that  this  liberalizing 
work  had  been  going  on  in  New  England  for  fifty 
years.  Its  most  prominent  teachers  were  Channing, 
Emerson,  and  Theodore  Parker.  There  was  a 
danger  in  the  work,  looked  at  religiously,  for 
whereas  the  scholars  might  be  supposed  to  take  care 


158  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

of  themselves  philosophically,  the  breach  made  in 
religious  customs  for  the  common  man  left  him 
nothing.  In  giving  up  creed  and  catechism  he 
could  scarcely  be  expected  to  come  into  "living 
touch"  with  the  philosophy  of  Germany.  So  the 
spectacle  is  presented  of  Puritan  churches  becoming 
Unitarian  and  Universalist,  and  presently  a  large 
percentage  of  the  members  of  these,  unable  to  feed 
on  elevated  ethical  ideas,  dropping  off  into  Spirit- 
ualism. Yet  Spiritualism,  so  bizarre  and  tempting, 
did  not  generally  satisfy  the  religious  need  of  the 
descendants  of  the  Puritans.  They  had  been  used 
to  the  teachings  of  stern  duty,  and  it  was  in  their 
nature  to  show  themselves  capable  of  spiritual 
effort.  Though  often  of  but  ordinary  intelligence, 
the  artisans  and  craftsmen  and  agriculturalists  of 
fifty  years  ago  had  a  deep  capacity  for  religion. 

Hiram  Crafts  was  such  a  man,  a  Yankee  workman 
transcendentalized.  He  was  not  singular,  but  a 
type  of  the  man  who  was  to  be  reached  by  Christian 
Science  in  the  first  twenty-five  years  of  its  promul- 
gation. Out  of  the  hunger  of  his  heart  for  religion, 
he  was  drawn  to  a  more  intimate  conversation  with 
Mary  Baker  than  he  could  gain  at  table,  though  he 
sat  next  her  on  the  left  hand  and  often  lingered  after 
supper  for  an  hour  of  eager  questioning  and  atten- 
tive listening.  Nor  was  it  singular  that  her  first  con- 
vert should  be  made  in  this  way.  This  man  had  no 
intellectual  antagonisms  to  overcome.  He  was 
simply  hungry  for  spiritual  experience,  hungry  to 
realize  that  personal  communion  with  God  that  the 
religious  movement  of  his  times  had  led  him  to  crave. 


THE  TEST  OF  EXPERIENCE  159 

The  hunger  of  this  shoe-worker  was  such  that  Mary- 
Baker  saw  she  must  provide  mental  food. 

She  began  to  systematize  her  ideas  and  to  write 
out  a  new  manuscript,  not  entirely  different  from 
those  she  had  prepared  for  Quimby.  She  still  be- 
lieved Quimby  had  shared  the  truth  of  divine  heal- 
ing with  her,  but  her  writings  were  now  entirely 
based  on  her  own  experiences.  These  were  written 
that  Hiram  Crafts  might  have  something  to  study. 
The  writings  were  exceedingly  simplified,  they  were 
brief  summaries,  a  primer  of  the  simplest  state- 
ments. Hiram  Crafts  in  describing  his  pupilage 
years  afterwards  said: 

"Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  the  discoverer  and 
founder  of  Christian  Science,  was  not  a  Spiritualist 
when  she  taught  me  Christian  Science  in  the  year 
1866.  At  that  time  I  was  a  Spiritualist,  but  her 
teachings  changed  my  views  on  that  subject  and  I 
gave  up  Spiritualism.  She  never  taught  me  in  my 
mental  practise  to  hurt  others,  but  only  to  heal  the 
sick  and  reform  the  sinner.  She  taught  me  from 
the  Scriptures  and  from  manuscripts  that  she  wrote 
as  she  taught  me." 

In  answer  to  a  story  intending  to  reflect  discredit 
upon  his  teacher,  a  story  which  charged  her  with 
living  upon  this  poor  workman  and  his  family  with- 
out payment,  he  further  said : 

"Mrs.  Eddy  boarded  at  my  house  when  I  resided 
in  Stoughton,  Massachusetts.  She  furnished  our 
parlor  and  gave  us  the  use  of  her  furniture." 

But  this  statement,  while  it  throws  a  little  color 
on   the   picture,  is   not  the   one   to   bear   in  mind 


160  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

concerning  her  relation  to  this  family.  Hiram  Crafts 
was  Mrs.  Eddy's  first  pupil.  She  taught  him  to 
return  to  his  Bible,  to  seek  in  primitive  Christianity 
the  religion  which  he  had  lost  through  liberalism, 
and  to  become  a  mental  practitioner  to  the  sick  and 
the  sinning.  In  fact  she  gave  him  a  profession  by 
which  he  not  only  was  able  to  live  a  religious  life, 
but  to  earn  his  living.  For  a  long  period  he  did  so 
earn  his  living  and  made  some  unusual  cures. 

Crafts  had  gone  to  Lynn  to  work  in  the  factories 
for  the  winter,  but  becoming  absorbed  with  this 
topic  of  Mind-science,  he  decided  to  return  to 
Stoughton  to  practise  it.  He  invited  Mrs.  Patterson 
to  go  with  him  and  his  wife  as  he  was  not  satisfied 
with  what  he  had  learned,  and  wanted  further  in- 
formation, instruction,  and  advice  in  practise. 

In  leaving  Lynn  with  these  humble  people,  Mary 
Baker  took  a  radical  step.  She  had  tried  for  months 
to  persuade  those  who  were  more  akin  to  her  in 
social  and  intellectual  heritage  to  accept  the  truth 
she  had  to  impart.  Of  these  some,  as  the  Phillips 
family,  loved  her,  but  were  impervious  to  her  doc- 
trine. The  Winslows  had  begged  her  not  to  talk  of 
it,  the  Unitarian  clergyman  of  Lynn  and  his  wife 
were  friendly,  but  they  feared  for  their  faith  when 
she  spoke  to  them  of  God  as  Principle.  The  Ellises 
of  Swampscott,  mother  and  son,  the  latter  a  teacher, 
listened  with  grave  interest  and  amiable  social  spirit 
to  her  arguments  for  a  higher  religion  when  she  was 
a  lodger  at  their  house;  but  they  were  not  moved 
to  accept  her  tenets.  Her  doctrine  seemed  to  have 
the  effect  of  provoking  discussion.     It  aroused  in 


THE  TEST  OF  EXPERIENCE  161 

some  minds  resentment.  In  some  homes  where  she 
had  experienced  agreeable  friendships,  she  found  it 
necessary  to  withdraw.  In  these  few  months  of 
1866  this  feeHng  had  augmented  almost  to 
persecution. 

Dr.  E.  J.  Thompson,  who  was  at  the  time,  and 
still  is  practising  dentistry  in  Lynn,  told  the  author 
that  he  remembers  talking  to  Mrs.  Patterson  on 
several  occasions  about  her  ideas  of  religion. 

"I  used  to  say  to  her,"  Dr.  Thompson  said,  "'It 
may  be  all  true,  but  I  do  not  grasp  it.'  As  long  as 
Mrs.  Patterson,  afterwards  Mrs.  Eddy,  lived  in 
Lynn,  she  was  known  as  an  unusual  woman  holding 
peculiar  religious  views.  Never  have  I  heard  any- 
thing more  against  her,  and  I  used  to  see  her  every 
day  for  many  years.  It  was  said  she  held  peculiar 
views  at  which  many  people  laughed.  But  no  one 
spoke  against  her  otherwise." 

Yet  it  was  her  very  life  that  they  were  against, 
these  friends  of  hers ;  for  life  meant  nothing  to  her 
without  religion.  She  could  more  easily  give  up 
society,  culture,  books,  even  church,  than  she  could 
give  up  speaking  of  the  understanding  of  God 
which  had  come  to  her.  So  she  made  the  decision  to 
go  into  what  would  have  been  for  her  at  an  earlier 
date  a  social  Sahara. 

To  the  Crafts  she  took  her  personal  belongings 
and  house  furnishings  and  helped  to  make  their 
home  more  like  what  she  was  used  to.  Her  efforts 
resulted  in  an  attractive  home,  though  one  of  great 
simplicity.  It  would  have  been  impossible  for  her 
to  do  otherwise  than  make  her  environment  at  least 

11 


162  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

interesting.  She  lived  there  not  entirely  as  a  guest, 
for  she  had  made  an  agreement  with  Mr.  Crafts  to 
guide  and  tutor  him.  She  also  diligently  applied 
herself  to  writing.  The  whole  problem  of  the 
science,  of  the  textbook,  and  of  the  practical  demon- 
stration might  have  been  worked  out  here.  The 
wandering  of  the  next  few  years  need  not  have  oc- 
curred, but  for  those  inherent  traits  deep  in  human 
nature  which  show  themselves  as  jealousy,  envy, 
and  resentment. 

Perfectly  natural  as  an  exhibition  of  human  na- 
ture was  the  gradual  revelation  of  Mrs.  Crafts' 
state  of  mind.  She  resented  playing  the  role  of 
Martha  in  this  household.  To  her  naturally  fell  the 
marketing  and  housework.  Her  tasks  were  not 
unusual  or  heavier  than  she  could  well  assume,  but 
the  presence  of  a  woman  in  her  house  who  was  not 
contributing  dollars  and  cents  directly  into  her  palm 
was  disconcerting  to  her  sense  of  thrift.  Moreover, 
the  guest  was  a  woman  conspicuously  her  superior, 
one  upon  whom  she  must  occasionally  wait  as  a 
serving  woman.  This  waiting  and  serving  was  hon- 
orable and  necessary,  and  looked  upon  in  a  very 
democratic  sense  by  the  household.  No  one  dreamed 
of  making  it  a  badge  of  shame  to  the  wife,  certainly 
not  the  husband  who  had  been  accustomed  to  see- 
ing his  wife  so  occupied;  certainly  not  Mrs.  Patter- 
son, who  on  occasion  had  performed  the  most 
menial  tasks  herself,  as  every  New  England  girl  is 
instructed  to  do  when  occasion  requires.  It  had 
been  imparted  to  Mary  Baker  as  a  part  of  the  ethics 
of  her  breeding. 


THE  TEST  OF  EXPERIENCE  163 

However,  the  thoughts  of  serving  a  woman  who 
held  long  conversations  daily  with  her  husband  and 
otherwise  occupied  herself  with  writing  aroused  in 
Mrs.  Crafts  a  jealousy  which  was  only  increased  as 
the  days  drifted  by  and  the  life  they  all  lived  was 
shown  to  be  without  blame.  There  was  no  ground 
for  reproach,  but  Mrs.  Crafts  found  a  fault  ex- 
pressed in  the  statement,  "She  carried  herself  above 
folks."  Her  jealousy  may  be  regarded  as  natural 
by  many,  but  it  was  certainly  unfortunate  in  that  it 
presently  cut  off  the  development  of  her  husband's 
work,  and  broke  the  continuity  of  Mary  Baker's. 

But  Mary  Baker  was  finding  out  an  invaluable 
secret.  She  was  learning  to  pursue  her  work  un- 
mindful of  petty  disturbance.  She  seems  to  have 
mentally  registered  a  vow,  or  engraved  it  upon  her 
heart,  "This  one  thing  I  do."  She  was  searching 
the  Scripture,  keeping  aloof  from  society,  and  de- 
voting time  and  energy  to  discovering  a  positive 
rule  of  healing.  It  must  be  remembered  that  she 
was  finding  the  task  "sweet,  calm,  and  buoyant  with 
hope,  not  selfish  nor  depressing."  She  was  winning 
her  way  to  absolute  conclusions  through  reason  and 
demonstration.  The  revelation  in  her  understand- 
ing was  coming  to  her  gradually.  This  was  the  test 
of  experience. 

After  a  winter  of  such  work  as  was  thought  neces- 
sary to  prepare  Hiram  Crafts  to  practise  mental 
healing,  the  family  removed  to  the  neighboring  town 
of  Taunton.  East  Stoughton,  where  they  had  passed 
the  winter,  is  now  called  Avon  and  is  sixteen  miles 
directly  South  of  Boston.     Taunton  is  still  further 


164  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

South,  thirty-two  miles  distant  from  Boston.  Mr. 
Crafts  opened  an  office  and  advertised  in  the  local 
papers  his  readiness  to  deal  with  various  mentioned 
diseases.  He  declared,  however,  that  if  patients 
gave  him  a  fair  trial  and  were  not  benefited  he  would 
refund  their  money.  In  three  weeks  he  was  able  to 
print  the  testimonial  of  a  woman  patient  who  had 
been  healed  of  an  internal  abscess.  The  patient 
tells  of  her  own  and  her  friends'  utter  astonishment 
that  this  should  have  been  done  in  an  incredibly 
short  time  when  she  had  suffered  for  twelve  years 
and  that  it  should  have  been  done  without  medicines 
or  applications,  but  she  added  that  she  was  con- 
vinced that  he  was  a  skilful  physician  and  that  his 
cures  were  not  the  result  of  accident. 

Such  indorsement  coming  from  one  living  in  his 
own  town,  whose  name  and  address  were  printed 
in  full  and  could  be  easily  seen  by  the  villagers  and 
country  folk,  had  a  good  effect  in  swelling  the  number 
of  his  visitors,  and  Hiram  Crafts  found  himself  in 
the  way  of  doing  a  great  deal  of  good,  while  his  liveli- 
hood, which  his  wife  had  feared  would  be  threatened 
by  the  abandonment  of  cobbling,  seemed  secured. 
She  made  it  a  source  of  complaint,  however,  that 
Mrs.  Patterson  did  not  herself  practise. 

Mrs.  Patterson  encouraged,  advised,  and  sup- 
port-ed  her  student  in  all  he  did.  During  the  even- 
ings she  discussed  the  principle  of  healing  with  him. 
Every  cure  that  he  made,  however  simple,  was  a 
further  demonstration  of  the  science.  She  was  as 
deeply  interested  and  as  greatly  rejoiced  over  each 
cure  as  was  the  practitioner.     It  was  a  season  of 


THE  TEST  OF  EXPERIENCE  165 

wonder  and  delight  to  both  teacher  and  student, 
and  also  at  times  to  the  faithful  Martha  of  their 
household.  But  doubting  relatives  filled  Mrs. 
Crafts  with  dissatisfaction  and  suspicion.  To  make 
shoes  was  a  tangible,  legitimate  method  of  earning 
a  living.  To  practise  religious  healing  was,  in  their 
estimation,  a  pious  fraud. 

Conversations  of  this  nature  with  her  relatives  had 
its  effect  in  due  time.  It  brought  about  strained  rela- 
tions in  the  household  and  made  a  new  adjustment 
of  conditions  necessary.  But  fortunately  before 
this  took  place  a  certain  work  had  been  accom- 
plished which  could  not  be  undone.  Mary  Baker 
saw  that  not  only  could  she  herself  heal,  but  she 
could  impart  the  understanding  of  the  modus 
operandi  to  another.  In  this  respect  her  work  al- 
ready differed  from  Phineas  Quimby's;  she  could 
detach  it  from  herself,  separate  it  from  her  person- 
ality. What  remained  was  to  give  the  philosophy 
its  scientific  statement. 


CHAPTER    XII 

GERMINATION  AND   UNFOLDMENT 

THERE  is  no  period  in  the  life  of  Mary  Baker  so 
difficult  to  delineate  as  the  one  before  us.  Its 
outward  aspect  might  be  rapidly  sketched,  the  inci- 
dents of  the  next  few  years  might  be  related  com- 
prehensively in  a  few  pages,  but  the  significance  of 
these  years,  which  is  of  vast  importance,  can  only 
be  indicated  with  the  most  reverent  suggestion. 

Whether  outlining  with  bold  pencil  strokes  or 
working  up  the  picture  from  the  canvas  of  environ- 
ment with  subtlest  brush  touches,  how  can  one  hope 
to  convey  the  idea  of  a  life  such  as  this,  gathered  out 
of  its  past,  confirmed  for  its  great  future,  girded  with 
purpose  and  panoplied  for  resistance  ?  Luminosity 
is  attained  only  by  the  greatest  skill  in  portraiture, 
and  by  what  perspicuous,  lucid,  sane  observations  of 
sympathy  and  understanding  only  the  masters  can 
tell.  But  even  such  portraiture  meets  with  success 
only  when  the  eye  to  which  it  is  submitted  will  atten- 
tively comprehend.  Discernment  of  transmutation 
in  character  must  accompany  the  enlightenment  of 
events. 

Mary  Baker  was  not  ready  to  state  the  science  of 
Mind-healing  directly  after  her  discovery  through 
her  own  personal  healing.    She  was  not  ready  after 


GERMINATION  AND  UNFOLDMENT  167 

she  had  healed  others  by  this  discovery ;  nor  was  she 
ready  when  she  had  fitted  her  first  student  to  heal 
disease.  How  she  was  prepared  for  this  work  can- 
not be  explained  by  the  usual  methods  of  the  biog- 
rapher, by  rehearsing  the  facts  of  her  residence  in 
various  places,  her  associates,  or  her  occupations. 
A  process  of  germination  and  unfoldment  took  place 
in  her  which  must  have  had  its  apocryphal  hours  as 
well  as  apocalyptic  moments,  its  seasons  of  doubt 
and  fog  as  its  times  of  certainty  and  sun.  The  work 
laid  upon  her  was  that  of  renaming,  actually  re- 
christening,  the  verities. 

In  her  autobiography  Mrs.  Eddy  has  endeavored 
to  explain  how  she  approached  this  great  work.  He 
who  runs  may  not  read  here.  Loose  conceptions 
arise  from  a  careless  use  of  terms,  and,  as  in  a  trial 
where  life  depends  on  exact  and  technical  phrasing, 
so  in  knowing  the  real  Mary  Baker  Eddy  one  must 
apply  himself  to  comprehend  her  terminology  and 
how  she  came  to  adopt  it  in  order  to  realize  what 
business  she  was  about. 

"I  had  learned  that  thought  must  be  spiritualized, 
in  order  to  apprehend  Spirit,"  she  has  written.  "It 
must  become  honest,  unselfish,  and  pure,  in  order  to 
have  the  least  understanding  of  God  in  Divine 
Science.  The  first  must  become  last.  Our  reliance 
upon  material  things  must  be  transferred  to  a  per- 
ception of  and  dependence  on  spiritual  things.  For 
Spirit  to  be  supreme  in  demonstration,  it  must  be 
supreme  in  our  affections,  and  we  must  be  clad  with 
divine  power.  Purity,  self-renunciation,  faith,  and 
understanding  must  reduce  all  things  real  to  their 


168  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

own  mental  denomination,  Mind,  which  divides, 
subdivides,  increases,  diminishes,  constitutes,  and 
sustains,  according  to  the  law  of  God."  ^ 

Thus  in  her  own  words  we  have  the  secret  of 
her  submission  to  adverse  circumstances  and  con- 
ditions with  a  marvelous  cheerfulness.  It  was 
submission  to  the  spiritual  sense  of  things,  docility 
to  the  tutelage  of  divine  inspiration.  She  further 
says : 

I  had  learned  that  Mind  reconstructed  the  body, 
and  that  nothing  else  could.  How  it  was  done,  the 
spiritual  Science  of  Mind  must  reveal.  It  was  a 
mystery  to  me  then,  but  I  have  since  understood. 
All  Science  is  a  revelation.  Its  Principle  is  divine, 
not  human,  reaching  higher  than  the  stars  of 
heaven. 

I  have  said  that  her  task  was  to  re-christen  the 
verities.  She  says  that  she  withdrew  from  society 
for  about  three  years  to  ponder  her  mission,  to  search 
the  Scriptures,  to  find  the  Science  of  Mind  that  should 
take  the  things  of  God  and  show  them  to  the  creature 
and  reveal  the  great  curative  Principle,  —  Deity .^ 
How  did  she  set  about  this  task  ?    She  says : 

The  Bible  was  my  text-book.  It  answered  my 
questions  as  to  how  I  was  healed;  but  the  Scrip- 
tures had  to  me  a  new  meaning,  a  new  tongue. 
Their  spiritual  signification  appeared;  and  I  ap- 
prehended for  the  first  time,  in  their  spiritual 
meaning,  Jesus'  teaching  and  demonstration,  and 
the  Principle  and  rule  of  spiritual  Science  and  Meta- 
physical Healing,  —  in  a  word.  Christian  Science.^ 

•  "Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  44. 
"  Ibid.,  p.  45.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  39. 


GERMINATION  AND  UNFOLDMENT  169 

In  a  brief  paragraph  is  related  the  actual,  tech- 
nical work  of  reducing  her  discovery  "to  the 
apprehension  of  the  age"  in  a  new  terminology, 
the  foundation  upon  which  all  her  subsequent 
work  was  built,  the  naming  of  the  fundamental 
conceptions.  She  says  of  this  earliest  work  in  the 
stating  of  her  Science: 

I  named  it  Christian,  because  it  is  compas- 
sionate, helpful,  and  spiritual.  God  I  called  Im- 
mortal Mind.  That  which  sins,  suffers,  and  dies 
I  named  mortal  mind.  The  physical  senses,  or 
sensuous  nature,  I  called  error  and  shadow.  Soul 
I  denominated  Substance,  because  Soul  alone  is 
truly  substantial.  God  I  characterized  as  indi- 
vidual entity,  but  His  corporeality  I  denied.  The 
Real  I  claimed  as  eternal;  and  its  antipodes,  or 
the  temporal,  I  described  as  unreal.  Spirit  I  called 
the  reality;  and  matter,  the  unreality.^ 

This  is  the  actual  work  of  several  years.  How  it 
was  accomplished  who  shall  say  ?  Who  can  say 
when  it  first  grew  clear  in  Mary  Baker's  under- 
standing that  "matter  neither  sees,  hears,  nor  feels 
Spirit"  and  that  the  five  physical  senses  testifying 
that  God  is  a  physical,  personal  Being  like  unto  man 
are  testifying  falsely  ?  Was  it  while  she  was  at  the 
Crafts'  humble  cottage  home  in  Taunton,  or  while 
with  the  turbulent  Wentworth  family  ?  Was  it  dur- 
ing the  quiet  hours  spent  with  the  motherly  old 
woman  in  the  great  empty  house  on  the  banks  of  the 
Merrimac  in  Amesbury,  or  was  it  while  leaving  an 

*  "Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  39. 


170  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

inhospitable  roof  in  a  deluge  of  rain  late  on  an 
autumn  night  ?  It  is  idle  to  inquire  whether  in  calm 
or  turbulence  the  spiritual  facts  grew  clear.  But 
both  calm  and  turbulence  were  her  lot,  and  sometime 
during  these  years  of  trial  it  became  clear  to  her 
what  her  mission  was  and  why  it  was  that  ceaseless 
toil  and  self-renunciation  were  laid  upon  her  after 
years  of  physical  suffering  and  the  sundering  of  al- 
most every  natural  or  human  tie  of  affection. 

"It  is  often  asked,"  Mrs.  Eddy  has  written,  *'why 
Christian  Science  was  revealed  to  me  as  one  Intelli- 
gence analyzing,  uncovering  and  annihilating  the 
false  testimony  of  the  physical  senses.  Why  was  this 
conviction  necessary  to  the  right  apprehension  of 
the  invincible  and  infinite  energies  of  Truth  and 
Love,  as  contrasted  with  the  foibles  and  fables  of 
finite  mind  and  material  existence. 

*'The  answer  is  plain.  Saint  Paul  declared  that 
the  Law  was  the  schoolmaster,  to  bring  him  to 
Christ.  Even  so  was  I  led  into  the  mazes  of  divine 
metaphysics  through  the  gospel  of  suffering,  the 
providence  of  God,  and  the  cross  of  Christ.  No  one 
else  can  drain  the  cup  which  I  have  drunk  to  the 
dregs,  as  the  discoverer  and  teacher  of  Christian 
Science ;  neither  can  its  inspiration  be  gained  with- 
out tasting  this  cup."  ^ 

Taking  up  the  incidents  which  formed  the  set- 
ting of  this  work  of  germination  and  unfoldment,  we 
find  the  last  tie  which  bound  her  to  family  and  home 
broken.  Or  to  speak  more  exactly,  we  find  her  sub- 
mitting to  the  severing  of  the  last  tie,  for  Mrs.  Eddy 

'  "Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  46. 


ii       « 


GERMINATION  AND  UNFOLDMENT  171 

never  broke  one  tie  with  her  own  hands,  never  was 
herself  the  cause  of  one  separation  from  all  those  who 
went  out  of  her  life,  never  neglected  a  duty  to  a 
relative  or  friend,  or  failed  to  show  grateful  remem- 
brance for  any  service  performed  in  her  behalf. 

There  had  been  backward  looks,  many  and  often, 
to  those  loved  ones  of  her  family.  Sitting  alone  in 
the  twilight  of  many  a  day,  she  had  reflected  long 
and  sadly  on  the  lights  and  shadows  of  the  past, 
dreaming  of  her  mother's  love,  dearer  to  her  than 
her  pen  could  relate.  She  wrote  of  that  mother  as 
she  oftenest  remembered  her,  bending  over  her  and 
parting  the  curls  to  kiss  her  cheek.  The  dear  love  of 
sister  and  brother  found  a  place  in  her  poetry  and 
the  sterner  affection,  deep  and  tried,  of  her  old 
father  is  often  referred  to.  She  had  thought  of  her- 
self as  a  young  bride,  of  the  lights  of  her  own  home, 
the  remembered  glance  of  her  husband's  eye.  Of 
all  these  memories  that  was  most  poignantly  sweet 
which  pictured 

*'.  .  .  a  glad  young  face. 
Upturned  to  his  mother  in  playfulness ; 
And  the  unsealed  fountains  of  grief  and  joy 
That  gushed  at  birth  of  that  beautiful  boy." 

These  verses  called  "I  am  Sitting  Alone,"  were 
written  in  September,  1866,  shortly  after  Dr.  Patter- 
son's desertion  and  before  she  left  Lynn  with  her 
first  student.  In  the  summer  of  1867  her  memories 
culminated  in  a  passion  of  affection.  She  must  see 
some  of  her  family  once  more  and  look  again  upon 
the  mountains  around  her  old  home,  those  hills  to 


172  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

which  she  had  lifted  her  eyes  when  a  schoolgirl, 
walking  in  the  garden  with  her  pastor;  when  a 
young  bride  leaving  home;  when  a  young  mother 
with  her  babe  in  her  arms ;  and  when  coming  back 
from  a  visit  to  her  own  mother's  grave. 

Yes,  Sanbornton  Bridge  and  Tilton  were  dear  to 
her.  Her  native  soil  and  natal  horizons  drew  her 
as  they  must  always  draw  all  that  is  human  in  the 
hearts  of  the  least  and  the  greatest.  Perhaps  her 
compelling  impulse  in  visiting  Tilton  was  to  see  her 
brother  George  who  had  returned  from  Baltimore 
and  now  resided  there  with  his  wife  and  child.  He 
had  become  blind.  This  great  sorrow  rested  upon 
him  heavily,  indeed  so  heavily  that  he  shortly  yielded 
to  an  illness  and  died.  But  a  few  months  before  his 
death  she  made  this  visit  home.  How  sensible  she 
was  of  his  sorrow  and  affliction  she  revealed  in  cer- 
tain other  verses  in  which  she  would  have  conveyed 
to  her  brother  more  than  sympathy,  the  understand- 
ing of  her  own  faith.  But  this  conveyance  of  her 
faith  was  not  possible;  he  could  not  accept  it, 
though  her  stanzas  with  a  depth  of  affection  beg 
him  to  dispel  the  shadow  and  give  back  from  his 
earnest  eyes  the  image  of  the  soul  of  Truth  and 
Light. 

On  the  occasion  of  this  home-going  Mary  visited 
her  brother  and  her  sisters  Abigail  and  Martha. 
With  Abigail  she  had  her  last  talk.  She  was  not 
able  to  reconcile  her  to  her  views  any  more  than  she 
was  able  to  inspire  her  brother  with  her  faith.  There 
was  much  of  homely  criticism  to  be  endured  and 
passed  over,  much  of  that  sort  of  reminding  of  the 


GERMINATION  AND  UNFOLDMENT  173 

trivial  which  makes  a  prophet  in  his  own  land  and  in 
his  own  house  unknown  because  the  outward  cir- 
cumstances loom  big  and  the  inner  life  is  unguessed. 
So  it  was  with  Jesus  when  in  Nazareth.  "Is  not  this 
the  carpenter's  son?"  they  asked,  and  "are  not  his 
brothers  and  sisters  here  with  us  ?"  So  "He  did  not 
many  mighty  w^orks  there."  In  her  sister  Martha's 
home  Mary  Baker  did,  however,  perform  a  signifi- 
cant healing.  Martha,  who  it  will  be  remembered, 
married  Luther  Pillsbury  of  Concord,  was  now  in 
Tilton  with  her  daughter  Ellen,  then  a  young  woman 
of  twenty-one.  This  daughter  lay  critically  ill  of 
an  abscess.  Mary  Baker  went  to  the  sick  chamber 
and  sat  with  her  niece  for  a  while.  The  girl  lay 
supinely  inert  and  helpless  in  bed;  she  is  said  to 
have  been  exceedingly  ill  and  to  have  had  perfect 
quiet  ordered. 

Shortly  after  her  aunt's  visit  to  her  sick  chamber, 
they  appeared  together  in  the  family  living  room. 
The  young  woman  was  dressed  and  expressed  a  de- 
sire to  eat  supper  with  the  family.  Every  member 
of  the  household  protested  at  once  on  seeing  her. 
They  were  seriously  alarmed.  But  Ellen,  obeying 
her  aunt,  refused  to  return  to  her  bed  and  suffered 
no  ill  effects.  Ellen  Pillsbury  recovered  completely, 
and  within  a  few  days  returned  to  Taunton  with  her 
aunt  Mary,  a  distance  of  a  hundred  miles.  The 
story  of  this  healing  was  told  the  author  by  Martha 
Rand  Baker,  widow  of  George  Baker,  who  still  lives 
in  Tilton. 

It  is  rather  singular  that  such  an  incident  as  this 
should   have   had    no   convincing   effect   on    Mary 


174  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Baker's  family.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  only  the  more 
alienated  them  from  Mary  and  her  religion.  Even 
Ellen  Pillsbury  came  in  after  years  to  repudiate  the 
healing,  and  repudiate  it  with  resentment. 

During  the  visit  with  her  to  Taunton  this  niece 
was  detached  in  her  affections  from  her  aunt.  Ellen 
was  amazed  at  the  simplicity  and  humbleness  in 
which  she  found  her  Aunt  Mary  living  at  the  home 
of  the  Crafts,  was  amazed  at  the  social  isolation,  the 
rigorous  application  to  a  severe  regimen  of  work 
which  her  aunt  had  imposed  upon  herself.  More- 
over, she  resented  a  firm  guidance  which  her  aunt 
directed  over  her.  All  would  have  been  made 
simple,  beautiful,  and  acceptable  had  Ellen  been  able 
to  imbibe  the  tenets  of  the  faith  which  had  healed 
her.  But  these  she  rejected.  She  returned  to  Tilton 
and  ever  after  scoffed  at  the  very  mention  of  Chris- 
tian Science.  It  was  she  who  prevented  her  aunt 
Abigail  in  her  last  sickness  from  sending  for  Mary. 
She  would  turn  pale  with  resentment  when  reminded 
that  she  had  herself  been  lifted  from  a  critical  illness 
by  her  aunt.  Her  antipathy  amounted  to  a  passion, 
and  is  related  with  wonder  by  old  neighbors.  It  is 
but  another  instance  of  many  remarkable  antagon- 
isms which  Christian  Science  healing  has  given  rise 
to  through  its  very  unanswerableness.  Ellen  Pills- 
bury  appeared  to  resent  the  notion  that  she  was 
made  to  be  a  living  witness  of  its  power.  She  acted 
as  the  final  disintegrating  factor  in  Mary  Baker's 
home  relations. 

Shortly  after  Ellen  Pillsbury  returned  to  Tilton, 
Mary  Baker  severed  her  relations  with  the  Crafts, 


GERMINATION  AND  UNFOLDMENT  175 

finding  that  no  further  good  could  be  done  along  the 
lines  of  procedure  she  had  marked  out  with  them. 
Mrs.  Crafts  was  a  confirmed  Spiritualist,  and  after  a 
very  temporary  lull  in  her  resistance  to  Christian 
Science  she  renewed  her  opposition  with  all  the 
energy  of  a  narrow  mind  and  found  countless  ways 
of  expressing  her  resistance.  Mary  Baker  went  to 
Lynn  for  a  short  visit  with  the  Winslows.  She  ex- 
plained to  them  her  desire  for  a  quiet  home  in  which 
she  could  w^rite  and  work  out  her  great  problem. 
They  suggested  that  she  go  to  Amesbury  and  their 
reasons  were  clear.  They  were  Quakers.  In  Ames- 
bury,  a  quiet  little  town  in  the  extreme  Northeast 
corner  of  Massachusetts,  situated  on  the  Merrimac 
River,  nine  miles  from  the  sea,  dwelt  the  great 
Quaker  poet,  Whittier.  It  was  natural  for  them  to 
suggest  this  as  an  admirable  place  for  literary  seclu- 
sion. It  was  a  quiet,  peaceful  village  w^ith  historic 
tradition.  The  Winslows  had  friends  there  to  whom 
they  commended  Mrs.  Glover,  as  she  was  now  called 
by  her  own  request. 

But  to  the  Quakers  she  did  not  go.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  the  Winslows  were  disquietly  affected 
by  her  ideas,  even  after  being  convinced  of  their 
healing  power.  They  had  told  her  if  she  persisted 
in  presenting  such  doctrine  she  would  be  thought 
insane.  This  was  also  the  opinion  of  a  Unitarian 
clergyman  and  his  wife.  It  was  not  in  Mary  Baker's 
heart  to  arouse  such  opposition  further  or  to  care- 
lessly enter  another  environment  of  resistance.  She 
now  turned  her  footsteps  to  the  home  of  an  elderly 
Spiritualist  woman  of  whom  she  had  heard  much. 


176  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Mrs.  Eddy  has  told  the  author  that  her  frequent  re- 
movals during  this  period  from  one  residence  to 
another  was  due  to  the  revolutionary  character  of 
her  teaching.  She  found  that  Spiritualists  revealed 
a  greater  willingness  than  others  to  receive  truth, 
and  she  wanted  to  teach;  she  was  ready  to  teach 
whomsoever  would  accept  her  doctrine.  It  was  to 
the  simple-minded  that  she  was  constrained  to  ad- 
dress herself  and  to  the  simplest  society.  How  these 
uneducated  and  simple  folk  were  variously  wrought 
upon  to  receive  and  reject  her  compels  the  narration 
of  many  painful  episodes.  Of  these  Maiy  Baker 
was  not  unduly  mindful.  Mrs.  Eddy  has  but  re- 
cently pointed  out  to  the  author  that  the  assaults  of 
the  trivial-minded  counted  for  but  little  in  compari- 
son with  the  kind  words  of  the  nobly  serious  who, 
differing  from  her  in  belief,  differed  according  to  their 
honor  and  nobility.  Of  these  Bronson  Alcott  was 
one  who  came  to  her  in  her  darkest  hour  with  the 
words,  "I  have  come  to  comfort  you." 

It  was  at  the  home  of  Mrs.  Nathaniel  Webster  that 
Mrs.  Glover  applied  for  board.  Mrs.  Webster  lived 
alone  in  a  three-story  house  of  some  fifteen  rooms  at 
the  foot  of  Merrimac  street  near  the  river.  Her  hus- 
band, a  retired  sea-captain,  was  at  that  time  a  super- 
intendent of  cotton  mills  in  Manchester,  and  was 
away  from  home  except  for  an  occasional  Sunday's 
visit.  With  open  heart  and  open  arms  Mrs.  Web- 
ster received  the  religionist.  She  had  a  sympathetic 
and  hospitable  nature,  and  moreover  an  inquiring 
mind.  She  was  agreeably  impressed  when  Mary 
Baker  told  her  that  she  was  engaged  on  a  very 


GERMINATION  AND  UNFOLDMENT  177 

serious  work  and  that  her  work  required  reflection 
and  soHtude.  She  explained  to  her  that  she  was 
writing,  but  did  not  further  enter  upon  a  discussion 
of  her  ideas  at  the  time.  They  came  to  an  agree- 
ment for  modest  terms  and  Mrs.  Webster  gave  her 
a  large  chamber  at  the  Southeast  corner  on  the 
second  floor.  Here  she  had  sunUght  and  a  view 
of  the  river. 

The  winter  and  part  of  the  following  summer  were 
spent  very  quietly.  These  two  women  were  placidly 
content  together.  If  "Mother"  Webster  was  in- 
clined to  discuss  Spiritualistic  "phenomena"  this 
was  not  a  new  experience  for  Mary  Baker.  She  had 
listened  to  these  ideas  before  and  in  many  instances 
had  shown  rare  toleration,  even  as  she  did  in  this 
case.  In  some  of  their  conversations  Mrs.  Glover 
endeavored  to  lead  Mrs.  Webster  into  an  under- 
standing of  the  Science  of  Mind.  But  the  elderly 
woman  showed  but  little  comprehension.  She  so 
far  failed  to  understand  her  as  to  think  that  Mrs. 
Glover  was  writing  a  revision  of  the  Bible.  Mrs. 
Webster  had  numerous  guests  of  her  own  faith; 
many  invalids  came  to  her  for  a  resting-place. 
With  these  Mrs.  Glover  sometimes  mingled  and  per- 
formed not  a  few  cures.  These  simple  people  came 
to  speak  of  her  with  awe  and  reverence,  and  the 
rumor  went  abroad  that  a  woman  was  living  at  Mrs. 
Webster's  who  could  perform  miracles.  When 
walking  along  the  river  banks  on  pleasant  summer 
evenings  with  Mother  Webster,  Mrs.  Glover  at- 
tracted the  villagers'  attention.  Young  people  loi- 
tering on  the  bridge  would  gaze  at  her  curiously,  half 

12 


178  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

expecting  to  see  Mrs.  Glover  walk  upon  the  water  of 
the  river.  Such  incidents  made  this  sojourn  in 
Amesbury  a  mingled  experience.  Seeking  absolute 
retirement,  she  was  forced  to  endure  a  somewhat 
unpleasant  notoriety  through  the  volubleness  of  the 
kindly  old  soul  with  whom  she  made  her  home. 

What  she  was  writing  at  this  time  was  comments 
on  the  Scriptures,  setting  forth  their  spiritual  inter- 
pretation, the  Science  of  the  Bible,  and  laying  the 
foundation  of  her  future  book.  Of  these  writings 
she  has  said: 

If  these  notes  and  comments,  which  have  never 
been  read  by  any  one  but  myself,  were  published, 
they  would  show  that  after  my  discovery  of  the  ab- 
solute Science  of  Mind-healing,  like  all  great  truths, 
this  spiritual  Science  developed  itself  to  me  until 
"Science  and  Health"  was  written.  These  early 
comments  are  valuable  to  me  as  waymarks  of 
progress,  which  I  would  not  have  effaced.* 

This  quiet  work  and  spiritual  unfoldment  came  to 
an  abrupt  halt  in  this  home  through  the  return  to 
the  house  of  a  son  of  her  hostess.  In  sardonic  rem- 
iniscence the  son  has  related  that  in  spite  of  his 
mother's  protests  he  dragged  Mrs.  Glover's  trunk 
out  upon  the  front  veranda,  ejected  her  into  the 
night  and  storm,  and  locked  the  door  upon  her.  He 
has  explained  that  he  wished  to  clear  his  mother's 
house  of  strangers  that  his  vacation  might  be  agree- 
able. This  is  a  startling  account  of  a  ruflfianly  act 
which  almost  any  man  would  hesitate  to  tell  of  him- 

•  "Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  42. 


GERMINATION  AND  UNFOLDMENT  179 

self,  and  it  gives  rise  to  the  question  as  to  what  really 
happened  there  that  so  unmannerly  a  deed  should 
be  unblushingly  proclaimed. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  the  incident  did  not  occur  as 
related  by  descendants  of  the  family.  There  was 
cause  for  much  offense,  but  the  cause  decidedly  lay 
not  with  Mrs.  Glover.  She  left  the  house  of  her  own 
volition,  left  it  with  the  same  composure  that  she  had 
first  entered  it^  And  her  leaving  w^as  justifiable.  A 
lady  who  was  a  guest  of  the  house  at  the  time  accom- 
panied her  and  together  they  went  to  the  home  of 
Miss  Sarah  Bagley.  Here  arrangements  were  made 
for  Mrs.  Glover's  entertainment  for  the  time  being, 
as  she  expected  shortly  to  return  to  Stoughton. 

Miss  Bagley 's  home,  while  simple  and  modest, 
was  nevertheless  a  home  of  refinement,  a  place  ad- 
mirably adapted  for  a  quiet  and  studious  life,  and 
some  months  later  Mrs.  Glover  returned  and  passed 
a  winter  with  her.  The  house  was  an  old  homestead 
built  by  Squire  Lowell  Bagley.  It  is  standing  to- 
day, just  below  the  hill  clothed  with  cedar  and  pine 
on  which  the  poet  Whittier  lies  buried  after  living 
for  fifty  years  in  the  quiet  old  town.  Across  the  way 
and  a  little  further  up  the  street  was  the  home  of 
Valentine  Bagley,  who  had  been  a  sea-captain. 
Once  in  his  wanderings  he  had  been  a  cast-away  in 
Arabia.  Suffering  tortures  of  thirst  in  the  desert,  he 
resolved,  if  he  reached  home,  to  dig  a  well  by  the 
wayside,  that  no  passer-by  should  ever  want  for 
water.  This  well  was  dug  and  Whittier,  hearing  the 
story,  wrote  his  poem  on  the  "Captain's  Well." 
Indeed,  the  town  is  full  of  the  legends  of  the  past 


180  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

which  Whittier  immortalized,  of  witches  sent  to 
Salem  to  be  tried  and  put  to  death,  of  Friends  de- 
ported or  hounded  across  the  boundaries.  Historic 
old  mansions  built  in  the  seventeenth  century  still 
stand  upon  the  street. 

When  Squire  Bagley  died  the  townspeople  were 
much  surprised  that  he  had  not  left  a  fortune  to  his 
daughters.  He  had  led  a  retired  life  for  a  number  of 
years  and  given  his  daughters  a  good  education. 
Miss  Sarah  Bagley,  however,  found  it  necessary, 
when  her  father's  affairs  were  settled,  to  teach  school 
for  an  income,  and  Whittier  was  one  of  her  first 
committee-men.  With  him  she  had  very  pleasant 
associations.  She  taught  for  several  terms  and  then 
remained  at  home  to  be  with  her  sister  who  was  not 
strong.  They  opened  a  small-wares  shop  in  their 
home  which  stood  so  close  to  the  street  as  to  make  it 
convenient.  But  in  spite  of  these  occupations  which 
Miss  Bagley  found  it  necessary  to  take  upon  herself, 
and  though  she  did  some  sewing  in  connection  with 
tending  her  shop,  it  is  an  injustice  to  her  memory 
to  speak  of  her  as  the  village  dressmaker  or  school- 
teacher with  a  show  of  condescension.  She  was  well 
read  and  cultivated,  a  friend  of  Whittier,  and  re- 
garded by  him  as  a  gifted  woman.  She  was  able  to 
perform  the  service  of  bringing  Mary  Baker  Eddy 
and  John  Greenleaf  Whittier  together  in  one  or  two 
significant  though  unrecorded  meetings. 

When  Mrs.  Glover  came  into  this  home  quietly 
and  composedly  on  a  stormy  evening  of  the  late 
summer  of  1868,  after  the  unpleasant  episode  at  the 
Websters',  she  brought  with  her  new  life  and  new 


GERMINATION  AND  UNFOLDMENT  181 

interests  to  the  somewhat  gray  and  saddened  exist- 
ence of  the  maiden  daughter  of  the  old  squire  whose 
fortunes  had  faded.  Miss  Bagley  had  been  a  Uni- 
versaKst  and  had  become  a  SpirituaUst  in  reHgious 
behef,  but  she  soon  became  interested  in  Mrs. 
Glover's  doctrine.  She  was  an  agreeable  compan- 
ion who  needed  only  the  living  touch  of  sympathy 
and  interest  to  waken  her  from  the  apathy  into  which 
her  dreaiy  round  of  duties  had  drawn  her.  Mrs. 
Glover  taught  her  the  elements  of  Christian  Science, 
for  it  must  be  remembered  that  she  had  not  yet 
definitively  grasped  this  Science  herself. 

After  Mrs.  Glover  left  her  they  corresponded  for 
over  two  years,  until  Mrs.  Glover  returned  again  to 
live  with  her  and  teach  her  to  heal.  This  event 
changed  her  whole  subsequent  life.  She  laid  aside 
her  needle  and  closed  her  shop,  devoting  herself  to 
practising  the  healing  art.  She  earned  her  living  for 
twenty  years  as  a  practitioner  and  laid  aside  suffi- 
cient to  keep  her  in  comfort  for  the  last  ten  years  of 
her  life  during  seven  of  which  she  was  afflicted  with 
semi-blindness.  But  Sarah  Bagley  was  never  a 
Christian  Scientist.  She  did  not  follow  her  teacher 
out  of  the  maze  into  the  bright  light  of  complete 
understanding.  She  refused,  as  did  another  stu- 
dent, to  lay  aside  mesmerism  and  confused  her 
practise  with  such  doctrines. 

While  living  in  Stoughton  with  the  Crafts,  Mrs. 
Glover  met  Mrs.  Sally  Wentworth,  who  brought  her 
daughter  to  her  to  be  healed  of  consumption.  Mrs. 
Wentworth  invited  Mrs.  Glover  to  come  and  live 
with  her,  and  wrote  her  while  she  was  in  Amesbury, 


182  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

repeating  the  request.  Mrs.  Glover  now  accepted 
the  invitation,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Wentworth 
household  for  about  two  years.  This  household  was 
composed  of  father  and  mother,  a  son  and  daughter, 
and  a  married  son  who  occasionally  visited  the  house. 
The  daughter,  Lucy  Wentworth,  was  a  girl  of  four- 
teen ;  the  brother  Charles,  a  little  older,  was  a  high 
school  boy,  and  the  oldest  son  Horace,  was  a  jour- 
neyman shoemaker,  of  a  happy-go-lucky  disposition, 
much  averse  to  religious  discussions. 

In  complying  with  Mrs.  Wentworth's  earnest 
appeal  that  she  should  make  her  home  with  them 
and  teach  her  Mind-science,  Mary  Baker  did  not 
entirely  realize  the  conditions  she  was  to  encounter. 
Mrs.  Wentworth  was  a  domestic-minded  woman, 
not  over  gifted  with  intellectuality,  but  of  a  recep- 
tive and  teachable  nature.  She  had  been  a  practical 
nurse  and  had  gone  out  to  the  sick  of  the  neighbor- 
hood for  years.  But  she  was  a  Spiritualist,  and  be- 
lieved in  rubbing  the  limbs  of  her  patients  to  give 
them  comfort.  She  had  eagerly  drunk  in  all  that 
Mary  Baker  had  imparted  to  her  of  Mind-healing 
when  she  met  her  at  the  Crafts',  and  thought  she 
could  combine  this  with  her  nursing  and  massage  to 
make  her  a  more  practical  healer. 

From  the  very  start  Mary  Baker  had  to  disabuse 
her  mind  of  such  a  hope.  She  talked  to  her  of  the 
fallacy  of  such  a  procedure,  often  illustrating  by  her 
experience  with  Phineas  Quimby.  In  just  what 
way  this  doctrine  of  rubbing  and  clairvoyantly  read- 
ing the  patients'  minds  was  inimicable  to  a  cure 
in   Mind-science    Mary   Baker   did   not   herself   at 


GERMINATION  AND  UNFOLDMENT  183 

that  time  know.  Hence  she  could  not  authorita- 
tively govern  Mrs.  Wentworth  in  her  thinking.  Mrs. 
Wentworth  was  inclined  to  the  Quimby  method  and 
Mary  Baker  had  not  found  herself  suflficiently  to 
gainsay  her  predilection.  She  told  Mrs.  Wentworth 
freely  all  that  she  knew  of  Quimby's  method,  but  she 
herself  worked  on  her  own  ideas,  writing  for  hours  in 
her  room,  struggling  with  the  conflicting  theories. 

Mrs.  Glover  had  with  her  a  manuscript  which  she 
had  prepared  while  at  Portland  under  the  sway  of 
Quimby's  thought.  Mrs.  Wentworth  wanted  to  copy 
this.  She  found  in  it  certain  comfort  for  her  Spiritu- 
alistic leanings.  Mrs.  Glover  did  not  refuse  it  to 
her,  but  felt  so  uncertain  of  its  character  that  she 
did  not  want  her  to  circulate  it  and  made  her 
promise  to  keep  it  only  for  her  own  perusal.  Not 
yet  certain  enough  to  absolutely  condemn  it,  she 
gravely  doubted  the  statements  which  she  had  herself 
penned  at  an  earlier  date  while  still  under  Quimby's 
influence. 

Now,  as  has  been  said,  Mary  Baker  was  engaged 
on  a  manuscript  concerning  the  spiritual  significance 
of  the  Scripture.  On  this  she  was  devoting  the 
closest  thought,  endeavoring  to  make  clear  the  ap- 
prehensions of  pure  spiritual  doctrine.  Mrs.  Went- 
worth, as  Mrs.  Webster  had  done,  spoke  of  this  as 
Mrs.  Glover's  Bible.  So  the  family  gossiped  among 
themselves  and  came  to  speak  of  the  manuscript 
Mary  Baker  loaned  Mrs.  Wentworth  as  the 
"Quimby"  manuscript,  and  the  one  she  was  at  work 
on  as  "Mrs.  Glover's  Bible."  Horace  Wentworth, 
the  shoemaker,  visiting  home,  caught  up  these  phrases 


184  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

with  the  readiness  of  a  jocular  and  jeering  tempera- 
ment. He  had  an  able  second  in  all  his  jests  and 
gibes  in  the  person  of  a  cousin,  a  gay-hearted,  mirth- 
loving  girl,  given  to  mimicry.  Between  them  they 
tormented  the  patient  mother  with  a  burlesque  of 
her  work. 

Mary  Baker  was  never  a  witness  of  these  hilarious 
scenes.  She  kept  rather  strict  hours  at  her  desk, 
varying  her  work  with  recreation  of  a  suitable  nature. 
She  lived  for  nearly  two  years  in  this  village  sur- 
rounded with  wooded  hills.  She  knew  well  its  quiet 
walks  and  inspiring  vistas.  In  her  room  she  wrote 
assiduously  and  spent  many  hours  in  meditation  and 
prayer.  Her  relations  with  the  two  children  living  at 
home,  as  well  as  with  the  father  and  mother,  were 
cordial  and  agreeable.  Far  from  being  a  recluse,  she 
welcomed  the  children  to  her  room  when  not  engaged 
with  her  writing,  and  made  their  joys  and  sorrows 
her  own.  The  daughter  Lucy  was  particularly  de- 
voted to  her. 

"I  loved  her,"  Lucy  Wentworth  told  the  author, 
**  because  she  made  me  love  her.  She  was  beautiful 
and  had  a  good  influence  over  me.  I  used  to  be  with 
her  every  minute  that  she  was  not  writing  or  other- 
wise engaged.  And  I  was  very  jealous  of  her  book. 
We  talked  and  read  together  and  took  long  walks 
in  the  country.  I  idolized  her  and  really  suffered 
when  she  locked  her  door  to  work  and  would  not  let 
me  come  to  her.  After  she  had  worked  for  hours 
she  always  relaxed  and  threw  off  her  seriousness. 
Then  she  would  admit  us,  my  brother  Charles  and 
me,  and  sometimes  a  school  friend  of  Charles.    The 


GERMINATION  AND  UNFOLDMENT  185 

boys  would  romp  in  her  room  sometimes  rather 
boisterously,  but  she  never  seemed  to  mind  it.  Our 
times  together  alone  were  quieter.  When  she  finally 
left  our  house  it  seemed  to  me  my  heart  would  break. 

"But  a  coolness  grew  up  in  the  family  toward  our 
guest.  I  don't  know  how  it  came  about.  My 
father  thought  she  absorbed  my  mother  too  much 
and  that  she  was  weaning  me  away  from  them. 
Perhaps  she  was  unconsciously,  for  she  made  a 
great  deal  of  me.  Yet  her  influence  over  me  was 
always  for  good.  We  read  good  books  and  talked 
of  spiritual  things.  She  loved  nature;  she  was  cul- 
tivated and  well-bred.  Her  manners  seemed  to  me 
so  beautiful  that  I  imitated  her  in  everything.  I 
never  missed  any  one  as  I  missed  her.  She  said 
good-by  to  me  with  great  affection,  held  me  in  her 
arms  and  looked  long  into  my  eyes.  'You,  too, 
will  turn  against  me  some  day,  Lucy,'  she  said. 
And  if  I  have  seemed  to,  did  I  not  have  reason.? 
Wliy  did  she  never  write  to  me  ?  I  have  never  heard 
from  her,  not  one  word  since  she  left  our  house 
thirty-five  years  ago." 

It  was  not  in  Mary  Baker's  nature  to  wean  a  child 
from  its  parents.  She  had  had  her  own  heart-break- 
ing experience  of  this  herself.  Her  experiences  with 
the  Wentworths,  following  upon  her  experiences 
with  the  Crafts,  taught  her  to  avoid  in  the  future  a 
too  close  mingling  with  another  family.  And  her 
conclusions  were  based  on  just  analysis  of  human 
nature.  Richard  Kennedy  of  Boston,  an  early  stu- 
dent with  Mrs.  Eddy,  in  commenting  upon  her  re- 
lations with  this  family,  made  these  observations  to 


186  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

the  author  in  explaining  the  situation  there  and 
elsewhere  when  Mrs.  Eddy  was  working  out  her 
religious  statement: 

The  Wentworths  were  well  enough  in  their 
way,  as  were  the  Crafts  with  whom  Mrs.  Eddy  lived 
at  an  earlier  period,  and  the  Websters  of  Amesbury. 
It  was  an  unfortunate  fact  that  Mrs.  Eddy  with 
her  small  income  was  obliged  to  live  with  people 
very  often  at  this  time  in  her  life  who  were  with- 
out education  and  cultivation.  It  was  never  her 
custom  to  keep  apart  from  the  family.  She  in- 
variably mingled  with  them  and  through  them  kept 
in  touch  with  the  world.  She  had  a  great  work  to 
do ;  she  was  possessed  by  her  purpose  and  like  Paul 
the  apostle,  and  many  another  great  teacher  and 
leader,  she  reiterated  to  herself,  '  This  one  thing  I 
do."  Of  course  simple-minded  people  who  take 
life  as  it  comes  from  day  to  day  find  any  one  with 
so  fixed  an  object  in  life  a  rebuke  to  the  flow  of  their 
own  animal  spirits.  Mrs.  Wentworth  w^as  what 
old-fashioned  New  Englanders  call  "clever,"  that 
is  to  say,  kind-hearted.  She  looked  well  after  the 
creature  comforts  of  those  under  her  roof.  Lucy 
was  a  spirituelle. young  girl,  Charles  was  a  sensible, 
lively  boy,  but  Horace  was  something  of  a  scoffer, 
without  any  leanings  toward  religious  inquiry. 

Horace  Wentworth,  the  scoffer,  has  in  late  years 
done  more  than  scoff  at  the  memory  of  his  mother's 
guest.  He  has  made  allegations  of  a  grave  nature 
against  Mary  Baker  Eddy.  He  has  said  that  in 
leaving  his  father's  house  Mrs.  Glover  maliciously 
slashed  the  matting  and  tried  to  set  the  house  afire  by 
putting  live  coals  on  a  pile  of  papers.  He  has  gos- 
siped after  this  manner  for  many  years,  and  finding 


GERMINATION  AND  UNFOLDMENT  187 

that  his  stories  went  well  in  the  village  square,  he 
eventually  told  them  to  newspaper  correspondents 
and  saw  them  printed  in  the  metropolitan  press. 
The  apparent  foundation  for  such  slanderous  gossip 
is  that  the  children  playing  roughly  in  Mrs.  Glover's 
room  tore  the  matting  with  their  heavy  shoes,  and 
some  dead  ashes  were  laid  on  a  newspaper  to  be 
removed  with  the  rubbish.  There  was  no  thought 
of  serious  unpleasantness  when  Mrs.  Glover  left  his 
father's  home,  nor  dared  this  son  speak  against  his 
mother's  teacher  so  long  as  his  mother  lived. 

But  the  scofEngs  of  the  son  and  the  mimicry  and 
mockery  of  his  cousin  Kate  did  create  a  discord  in 
the  home  which  came  to  wear  on  Mrs.  Glover's- 
mind.  She  frequently  overheard  the  wordy  and 
worldly  clamor  in  the  rooms  down-stairs.  She  heard 
the  harsh  laughter  and  mincing  mimicry;  she 
heard  the  passionate  defense  made  of  her  by  the 
young  daughter  Lucy;  she  heard  Mrs.  Went- 
worth  sharply  reprimanding  her  eldest  son  with  the 
words,  '*If  ever  there  was  a  saint  on  earth  it  is  Mrs. 
Glover."  She  heard  the  father  interfere  with  a 
tolerant  plea  for  his  boy.  The  house  was  too  small 
for  her  to  live  in  unmindful  of  these  indiscreet 
wranglings. 

There  seemed  to  be  a  hopeless  division  in  the 
family  over  her,  her  personality,  her  teaching,  her 
interpretation  of  the  Bible.  This  division  of  opinion 
threatened  to  become  a  serious  cause  of  difference 
in  an  otherwise  united  family.  Mary  Baker  made 
up  her  mind  one  evening,  after  reading  a  letter  from 
Miss  Bagley,  that  she  would  return  to  the  quiet  home 


188  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

of  this  cultivated  maiden  lady  in  Amesbury  and  go  on 
with  her  work  where  she  would  be  less  disturbed  and 
in  no  way  the  cause  of  discussion. 

But  it  was  not  Mary  Baker's  idea  of  good-breeding 
to  break  off  long-established  relations  rudely  or  with 
recrimination.  She  recognized  the  limitations  of 
this  family ;  she  knew  what  she  had  to  do  and  that 
she  must  be  about  it.  She  acquainted  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Wentworth  with  her  intentions  and  her  leave-taking 
was  made  with  courteous  attentions  on  both  her  part 
and  theirs.  She  was  escorted  to  the  train  by  the 
elder  Mr.  Wentworth,  who  carried  her  bag  and 
wraps.  He  found  her  a  comfortable  seat  in  the  train 
and  shook  hands  with  her  with  expressions  of  re- 
gret at  parting.  This  may  not  be  as  romantic  an 
account  as  that  of  Horace  Wentworth,  who,  from 
long  embellishment  of  his  reminiscences,  came  to 
say  that  his  family  had  gone  from  home  and  that 
Mrs.  Glover,  after  strewing  a  newspaper  with  smok- 
ing coals,  fled  clandestinely.  However,  the  sober 
facts  are  that  the  leave-taking  was  quite  devoid  of 
adventure  and  as  decorous  as  usual  with  well- 
behaved  personages. 

Returning  to  Amesbury  in  the  fall  of  1870,  Mary 
Baker  spent  the  winter  completing  certain  manu- 
scripts and  teaching  two  students.  These  students 
were  Sarah  Bagley  and  Richard  Kennedy.  Ken- 
nedy was  a  young  man  a  little  past  his  majority,  who 
boarded  at  the  Captain  Webster  house  where  Mrs. 
Glover  had  previously  lived.  He  had  a  small  box 
factory  in  the  town,  employing  a  few  hands  and 
earning  for  himself  a  good  living.    He  was  alert  and 


GERMINATION  AND  UNFOLDMENT  189 

active,  clean-minded  and  clear-headed,  and  Mrs. 
Glover  readily  accepted  him  with  Miss  Bagley  as  a 
student.  The  winter  evenings  were  passed  in  con- 
versation on  metaphysics.  The  Socratic  method  of 
teaching  was  necessarily  adopted  by  Mrs.  Glover,  as 
she  had  as  yet  no  text-book.  These  early  talks  were 
later  systematized,  the  dissertations  were  dignified 
into  the  form  of  lectures.  And  these  lectures  some 
of  her  early  students  declare  to  have  been  illumin- 
ating and  inspirational  beyond  valuing  in  money. 

Her  dissertations  as  well  as  her  writings  were  be- 
ginning to  unseal  the  fountains  of  her  inspiration. 
She  had  arrived  by  this  winter's  work  at  a  clear 
standpoint.  She  could  now  definitely  wrap  in  words 
the  spiritual  concepts  which  had  before  been  elu- 
sive and  intangible.  She  was  beginning  to  lay  hold 
of  the  technical  processes  of  her  work.  From 
this  standpoint  she  lifted  her  eyes  to  a  far  horizon. 
The  work  now  opened  up  before  her,  the  work  of 
promulgation. 

By  the  spring  of  1870  she  had  completed  a  manu- 
script which  she  entitled  "The  Science  of  Man." 
This  manuscript  was  copyrighted  but  not  published 
until  some  time  later.  "I  did  not  venture  upon  its 
publication  until  later,"  she  says,  "having  learned 
that  the  merits  of  Christian  Science  must  be  proven 
before  a  work  on  this  subject  could  be  profitably 
published."  ' 

It  was  first  issued  as  a  pamphlet  and  is  advertised 
in  the  first  number  of  the  Christian  Science  Journal. 
It  was  later  converted  into  the  chapter  Recapitula- 

'  "Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  53. 


190  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

tion,  embraced  in  later  editions  of  ''Science  and 
Health."  It  contains  the  fundamental  principles  of 
Christian  Science  and  its  simplest  comprehensive 
tenet,  the  scientific  statement  of  being.  With  this 
manuscript  completed  she  knew  that  she  could 
teach  the  science  and  extend  her  work,  that  the  time 
was  ripe  for  harvest. 

Through  four  successive  years  she  had  labored 
carefully,  patiently,  earnestly,  writing  and  rewriting, 
while  the  truth  grew  in  her  understanding.  It  is  no 
refutation  of  her  sublime  discovery  in  1866  or  of  her 
divine  guidance  in  preparing  and  presenting  its 
principles  that  the  work  was  a  growth  and  did  not 
spring  full  blown  into  her  mind.  Mary  Baker  Eddy 
could  never  have  made  her  discovery  in  1866  had 
she  not  been  prepared  for  it  by  long  application  to 
spiritual  inquiry.  Nor  would  she  have  written 
"Science  and  Health"  had  she  not  labored  long 
and  with  perfect  submission  to  imperative  spiritual 
guidance.  The  preparation  for  the  discovery  is 
shown  by  the  fact  of  her  childhood  and  young 
womanhood  and,  as  this  narrative  reveals,  her  state- 
ment of  long  preparation  is  sustained  by  the  fact  of 
her  life.  She  says :  "From  my  very  childhood  I  was 
impelled  by  a  hunger  and  thirst  after  divine  things, 
—  a  desire  for  something  higher  and  better  than 
matter  —  to  seek  diligently  for  the  knowledge  of 
God,  as  the  one  great  and  ever-present  relief  from 
human  woe."  ^ 

With  regard  to  important  dates  in  her  memory 
concerning  the  portents  of  what  was  to  be  revealed 

*  "Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  47. 


GERMINATION  AND  UNFOLDMENT  191 

to  her  she  says:  "As  long  ago  as  1844  I  was  con- 
vinced that  mortal  mind  produced  all  disease  and 
that  the  various  medical  systems  were  in  no  sense 
scientific.  In  1862,  when  I  first  visited  Mr.  Quimby, 
I  was  proclaiming  to  druggists,  Spiritualists,  and 
mesmerists  that  science  must  govern  all  healing."  ^ 

Her  life,  her  acts,  her  conversations  all  sustain 
this  statement,  though  mortal  mind  belongs  to  the 
terminology  of  later  years.  Before  meeting  Quimby 
the  conception  of  that  which  *'sins,  suffers,  dies" 
was  growing  in  her  thought,  though  as  a  vague  ap- 
prehension. While  in  Groton  she  astounded  the  old 
man  who  visited  her  to  pray  with  her  by  rising  to 
meet  him  in  no  other  strength  than  a  faith  groping 
blindly.  In  Rumney  she  healed  the  diseased  eyes  of 
a  child  instantaneously,  and  as  a  further  proof  that 
she  was  acquiring  a  more  definite  hold  of  this  great 
truth,  she  was  herself  healed  by  her  own  religiosity 
while  under  Quimby's  magnetic  treatment  and  in 
spite  of  his  manipulations.  No  one  should  be  con- 
fused by  these  facts  concerning  the  definite  discovery 
in  1866.  Mrs.  Eddy  says:  "The  first  spontaneous 
motion  of  Truth  and  Love,  acting  through  Christian 
Science  on  my  roused  consciousness,  banished  at 
once  and  forever  the  fundamental  error  of  faith  in 
things  material ;  for  this  trust  is  the  unseen  sin,  the 
unknown  foe,  —  the  heart's  untamed  desire,  which 
breaketh  the  divine  commandments."  ^ 

If  she  was  thus  prepared  for  her  discovery,  indeed 
re-prepared  after  experiencing  magnetism  by  an  act 

'  Christian  Science  Journal,  1887. 

*  "Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  48. 


192  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

of  providence,  that  her  healing  might  be  clear  and 
definite,  then  we  may  believe  she  was  by  the  same 
gradual  process  prepared  for  the  writing  of  her  book. 
Again  it  is  best  to  take  her  own  words  for  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  attuning  of  her  faculties.    She  says : 

Naturally,  my  first  jottings  were  but  efforts  to 
express  in  feeble  diction  Truth's  ultimate.  ...  As 
sweet  music  ripples  in  one's  first  thoughts  of  it  like 
the  brooklet  in  its  meandering  midst  pebbles  and 
rocks,  before  the  mind  can  duly  express  it  to  the  ear, 
—  so  the  harmony  of  Divine  Science,  first  broke 
upon  my  sense,  before  gathering  experience  and 
confidence  to  articulate  it.  Its  natural  manifesta- 
tion is  beautiful,  and  euphonious,  but  its  written 
expression  increases  in  power,  and  perfection,  under 
the  guidance  of  the  great  master.^ 

*  "  Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  43. 


CHAPTER     XIII 

MESMERISM   DETHRONED 

WITH  the  coming  of  spring  in  the  year  1870 
Mrs.  Glover's  thoughts  were  definitely  shaped 
for  the  work  before  her.  She  had  decided  to  return 
to  the  city  of  Lynn  and  take  up  the  teaching  of  Divine 
Science.  She  had  the  manuscript,  "The  Science  of 
Man,"  for  a  basis.  From  a  worldly  standpoint  her 
resources  were  meager.  Her  small  income  had  been 
carefully  husbanded,  but  she  had  in  hand  only  a 
modest  sum  for  capital  with  which  to  venture  into  a 
city  and  rent  rooms.  Her  wardrobe  too  was  scanty, 
carefully  preserved  though  it  had  been.  That  she 
was  invariably  neat  and  attractive  in  appearance  is 
in  itself  a  statement  suggestive  of  a  miracle.  That 
she  had  had  shelter,  food,  and  clothing  for  four  years 
on  an  income  of  two  hundred  dollars  per  annum,  and 
had  nowhere  incurred  the  charge  of  charitable  enter- 
tainment, and  that  she  had  all  that  time  worked  as- 
siduously at  her  intellectual  and  spiritual  problems  is 
one  of  the  mysteries  of  the  possibilities  of  poverty, 
fully  as  beautiful  in  its  revelation  as  the  glory  of 
opulence. 

Richard  Kennedy,  the  young  man  who  with  Miss 
Bagley  had  received  her  instruction  during  the 
winter,  had  no  mind  to  leave  his  teacher.  He  had 
become  so  imbued  with  enthusiasm  for  the  Science 

13 


194  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

he  had  been  studying  that  he  wished  to  practise  it, 
and  he  wished  to  begin  his  practise  in  the  larger 
field  of  Lynn.  He  conceived  the  idea  of  accompany- 
ing his  teacher  and  practising  under  her  guidance. 
He  talked  it  over  with  Mrs.  Glover  many  times, 
joining  her  when  she  took  her  evening  walk  along 
the  river  at  sunset,  and  eagerly  setting  forth  his 
plans  for  mutual  work.  It  was  his  desire  to  be  under 
Mrs.  Glover's  supervision,  taking  the  burden  of 
practise  entirely  on  his  shoulders  and  leaving  her 
free  to  teach  and  write.  He  also  believed  that  he 
could  relieve  her  of  many  business  cares.  He  had 
some  capital,  and  so  sensible  was  he  of  the  enlighten- 
ment he  had  received  that  he  was  quite  ready  to 
risk  his  savings  and  to  agree  to  share  equally  with 
Mrs.  Glover  any  income  which  he  might  derive 
from  the  practise  of  Mind  Science. 

Mrs.  Glover  was  not  so  ready  to  enter  into  this 
agreement  with  her  young  student.  He  had  an  un- 
blemished reputation,  had  honorably  conducted 
himself  toward  her  with  the  chivalrous  devotion  of  a 
son  to  a  mother;  but  he  was  untried  in  the  ways 
of  life,  there  had  been  no  test  put  upon  him  such  as 
she  well  knew  lay  before  him  if  he  took  up  the  work 
with  her.  She  knew  the  city  of  Lynn,  its  somewhat 
harsh  industrialism,  its  free  intermingling  of  the 
sexes  in  the  factory  life,  and  the  nearby  temptations 
of  Boston  —  all  very  different  from  the  village  life 
of  Amesbury. 

"Richard,"  she  said  to  him,  laying  a  hand  upon 
his  shoulder  and  looking  searchingly  into  his  frank, 
boyish  face,  '*this  is  a  very  spiritual  life  that  Mind 


MESMERISM  DETHRONED  195 

Science  exacts,  and  the  world  offers  many  allur- 
ing temptations.  You  know  but  little  of  them  as 
yet.  If  you  follow  me  you  must  cross  swords  with 
the  world.  Are  you  spiritually-minded  enough  to 
take  up  my  work  and  stand  by  it  .5^" 

Richard  Kennedy  thought  he  was.  His  eagerness 
and  enthusiasm  carried  the  day.  Accordingly  he 
accompanied  Mrs.  Glover  to  Lynn  and  they  stopped 
at  the  home  of  Mrs.  Oliver  until  they  could  make 
arrangements  for  offices  and  living  rooms.  Mr. 
Kennedy  soon  found  a  desirable  apartment  in  a 
three-story  building  at  the  corner  of  South  Common 
and  Shepard  streets,  a  little  out  of  the  business 
district  and  yet  within  easy  walking  distance  of  the 
main  thoroughfares.  This  building  stands  there 
to-day,  but  has  been  crowded  in  between  more 
recent  buildings  and  does  not  have  the  attractive 
appearance  that  it  had  forty  years  ago. 

The  house  was  then  a  gable-roofed  frame  struc- 
ture, surrounded  by  lawns  and  shade  trees.  The 
open  space  across  the  way  was  a  large  park,  Lynn 
Common,  lined  with  stately  trees.  The  open  view, 
good  air,  and  commodious  interior  of  the  house 
made  it  an  attractive  place.  Miss  Susie  Magoun  had 
but  recently  leased  the  place  for  a  private  school 
for  young  girls,  and  she  used  the  first  floor  for  this 
purpose  and  the  third  floor  for  her  own  sleeping 
apartments.  She  was  a  good  business  woman,  but 
quite  young  and  somewhat  nervous  about  her 
extensive  financial  obligations.  When  young 
Kennedy  called  on  her  one  evening  early  in  June, 
she  was  looking  over  the  building  and  beginning 


196  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

to  feel  apprehensive  about  her  second  floor  and 
what  sort  of  tenants  she  would  be  likely  to  have 
there.  The  young  misses  who  were  to  come  there 
for  grammar  studies  and  the  accomplishments  of 
music,  painting,  and  dancing  were  the  daughters 
of  the  wealthier  families  of  Lynn.  It  was  necessary 
that  her  tenants  should  be  desirable  persons. 

Accordingly  Miss  Susie  Magoun  was  pleased 
when  Richard  Kennedy  explained  that  he  was  a 
physician  who  would  practise  mental  healing  and 
that  he  was  in  partnership  with  a  lady  who  taught 
moral  science  and  was  writing  a  book  on  her  system. 
She  thought  it  prudent,  however,  to  reserve  her 
decision  until  she  saw  the  lady,  who  might  be  a 
Spiritualist  and  the  mental  healing  resolve  itself 
into  trances  and  seances.  All  this  doubt  was  swept 
away  in  her  meeting  with  Mrs.  Glover,  to  whom  she 
straightway  put  those  doubts  into  questions.  Mrs. 
Glover  unreservedly  told  her  the  facts,  stating  that 
she  did  not  hold  to  any  such  views  or  practises.  Her 
quiet,  well-bred  manner  reassured  the  little  school- 
mistress, who  forthwith  let  her  second  floor  of  five 
rooms  to  Mrs.  Glover  and  Mr.  Kennedy  for  offices 
and  sleeping  rooms.  She  presently  found  her 
tenants  so  agreeable  that  she  persuaded  an  old 
friend  to  come  to  live  with  her  and  open  a  dining- 
room  for  them  all  in  the  house.  Thereafter  the 
family  took  their  meals  together. 

Of  Mrs.  Glover's  religious  views  the  school- 
mistress remained  unenlightened  beyond  these  first 
explanations  and  the  fact  that  she  attended  church 
regularly.    Indeed  they  rented  a  pew  together  at  the 


MESMERISM  DETHRONED  197 

Unitarian  church  a  few  doors  away  on  South 
Common  street.  The  Rev.  Samuel  B.  Stewart  was 
the  clergyman  at  the  time.  Why  Miss  Magoun 
should  have  withheld  herself  from  a  knowledo-e  of 
Mrs.  Glover's  teaching  is  a  matter  of  relatively 
small  importance,  yet  it  has  some  relation  to  the 
events  of  the  succeeding  months.  She  was  young, 
social,  and  of  a  lively  disposition.  To  her  Mrs. 
Glover  seemed  somber,  serious,  austere.  On  the 
contrary,  the  young  doctor,  as  Kennedy  was  now 
called,  entered  more  into  her  plans.  He  took  part 
in  some  of  her  social  affairs.  They  met  upon  the 
same  plane.  It  was  he  who  paid  the  rent ;  it  was  he 
who  would  perform  an  errand  for  her  in  the  city ;  it 
was  he  who  exchanged  the  gossip  of  the  hour  with 
her.  Indeed  Richard  Kennedy  was  little  more  in- 
clined than  was  their  hostess  to  accept  the  austerities 
of  Christian  Science. 

The  rooms  which  Mrs.  Glover  had  taken  were 
fitted  up  very  plainly,  for  she  had  well  learned  the 
severe  lesson  of  plain  living  and  high  thinking.  She 
formed  her  first  class  in  Mind  Science  shortly  after 
they  were  settled.  Her  first  pupils  came  from  the 
shoe  shops.  Patients  came  in  response  to  the 
modest  sign  which  was  put  up  outside  the  door. 
Mrs.  Glover  advised  and  instructed  her  associate  in 
giving  treatment.  Meanwhile  she  continued  her 
writing  in  her  own  rooms.  The  treatment  inter- 
ested the  more  speculative  of  the  patients  and  they 
sought  Mrs.  Glover  to  talk  with  her  and  learn  of 
this  new  Science.  Thus  the  first  students  were 
gathered  around  her. 


198  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

It  is  not  possible  to  draw  a  picture  of  those  first 
classes  in  Mind  Science  that  will  appeal  to  a  sense  of 
the  beautiful.  The  students  who  were  drawn  to- 
gether were  workers;  their  hands  were  stained 
with  the  leather  and  tools  of  the  day's  occupation; 
their  narrow  lives  had  been  cramped  mentally 
and  physically.  Their  thoughts  were  often  no  more 
elevated  than  their  bodies  were  beautiful.  They 
could  not  come  to  Mrs.  Glover  in  the  daytime,  for 
their  days  were  full  of  toil.  At  night,  then,  these 
first  classes  met,  and  it  was  in  the  heat  of  July  and 
August.  In  the  barely  furnished  upper  chamber  a 
lamp  was  burning  which  added  somewhat  to  the 
heat  and  threw  weird  shadows  over  the  faces 
gathered  round  a  plain  deal  table.  Insects  buzzed 
at  the  windows,  and  from  the  common  over  the  way 
the  hum  of  the  careless  and  free,  loosed  from  the 
shops  into  the  park,  invaded  the  quiet  of  the  room. 
Yet  that  quiet  was  permeated  by  the  voice  of  a 
teacher  at  whose  words  the  hearts  of  those  workmen 
burned  within  them.  "The  light  which  never  was 
on  land  or  sea"  was  made  to  shine  there  in  that 
humble  upper  chamber. 

I  have  said  this  picture  was  not  beautiful,  yet  it 
appeals  to  the  deepest  and  highest  sense  of  beauty, 
that  sense  through  which  the  heart  receives  impres- 
sion. Mary  Baker  laid  her  finger  upon  the  central 
motive  of  life  those  summer  evenings  forty  years  ago, 
and  the  response  was  a  spiritual  thrill  which  vibrated 
through  consciousness  to  the  circumference  of  the 
world's  horizon,  not  immediately,  but  gradually,  per- 
sistently as  the  years  passed.    And  that  moment  of 


MESMERISM  DETHRONED  199 

exquisite  tenderness,  evoked  in  the  humble  upper 
chamber,  seems  destined  to  swell  into  an  eon,  where 
time  melts  into  eternity ;  for  it  was  in  such  a  moment 
that  the  understanding  of  divine  consciousness  was 
imparted.  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons,  St. 
Peter  discovered.  He  had  seen  the  despised  Naza- 
rene  impart  this  consciousness  to  the  fishermen  on 
the  shores  of  Galilee.  The  shoe-worker  from  his 
dingy  bench,  his  foul-smelling  glues  and  leathers, 
the  whirr  and  clangor  of  machinery,  saw  the  walls 
of  his  limitation  melt,  and  experienced  the  inrush  of 
being  where  the  lilies  of  annunciation  spring. 

To  these  students  Mary  Baker  was  not  somber, 
austere,  or  formidable.  She  was  invariably  in- 
terested and  interesting,  possessing  a  sympathy 
which  went  deep  down  to  the  heart  of  things.  She 
rebuked  sin  and  sickness  alike  and  there  was  an 
invariableness  about  her  queries  and  her  eyes  which 
searched  their  lives.  Some  could  not  endure  such 
testing  and  fell  away;  others  stood  fast  and  ex- 
perienced amazing  results  in  their  lives.  There 
were  healings  of  consumption,  of  tumor,  of  dropsy, 
and  other  extreme  cases  of  disease  made  by  these 
students,  and  such  results  were  so  amazing  to  the 
students  that  some  of  them  were  confounded  by 
their  very  success. 

One  of  her  first  students  was  George  Tuttle,  the 
brother  of  a  woman  whom  Richard  Kennedy, 
directed  by  Mrs.  Glover,  had  healed  of  tuberculosis 
in  an  advanced  stage.  George  Tuttle  was  a  stalwart 
young  seaman  who  had  just  returned  from  a  cruise 
to  Calcutta.     It  is  said  that  he  was  asked  what  he 


200  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

thought  he  would  get  out  of  Mrs.  Glover's  class  in 
metaphysics.  He  replied  that  he  didn't  think  about 
it  at  all,  that  he  joined  because  his  sister  asked  him 
to.  When  he  actually  cured  a  girl  of  dropsy  as  a 
result  of  his  first  grappling  with  Mind  Science,  he 
was  so  surprised  and  frightened  that  he  washed  his 
hands  of  it  forever. 

It  was  not  by  overstating  what  Mrs.  Glover  had 
taught  them,  but  by  misstating  her  teaching,  through 
misapprehension  or  through  wilful  distortion,  that 
some  of  these  earlier  students  became  ineffectual  and 
subsequently,  through  chagrin,  were  entirely  es- 
tranged from  the  cause  which  they  had  at  first  so 
ardently  espoused.  One  of  the  rebellious  students 
was  Charles  S.  Stanley,  brother-in-law  of  the  seaman 
Tuttle.  He  was  a  shoe-worker  and  a  Baptist.  The 
healing  of  his  wife  had  led  him  to  seek  admittance  to 
the  class  Mrs.  Glover  was  conducting.  After  some 
questioning  she  admitted  him,  only  to  find  him 
argumentative,  controversial,  determined  to  discuss 
dogma  from  the  standpoint  of  a  Baptist  rather  than 
a  Christian.  In  the  class  were  men  and  women, 
mostly  shoe-workers.  These  students  had  various 
religious  creeds ;  there  were  Methodists,  Unitarians, 
Universalists,  and  others.  The  controversial  Baptist 
affected  the  harmony  of  a  class  where  other  members 
had  risen  above  creed  into  the  consideration  of  pure 
Christianity.  His  arguments  recurred  from  day  to 
day  until  Stanley  broke  away  from  Mrs.  Glover's 
teaching  without  completing  her  course  of  in- 
struction. Indeed  she  dismissed  him  for  lack  of 
teachableness,  though  he  insisted  he  knew  all  there 


MESMERISM  DETHRONED  201 

was  of  Mind  Science.  He  practised  without  her 
sanction  and  with  indifferent  success  for  a  time  and 
later  became  a  homeopathic  physician. 

Wallace  W.  Wright,  a  bank  accountant,  came  to 
grief  in  his  practise  of  Mind  Science.  He  was  the  son 
of  a  Universalist  clergyman  of  Lynn,  and  a  brother 
of  Carroll  D.  Wright,  who  afterward  became  United 
States  Commissioner  of  Labor.  His  relations  with 
Mrs.  Glover  were  interesting  because  the  rock  upon 
which  he  struck  was  not  superstition,  as  in  the  case 
of  Tuttle,  or  dogma,  as  in  the  case  of  Stanley,  but 
psychology.  He  precipitated  a  discussion  which 
finally  led  Mrs.  Glover  to  draw  the  line  sharply 
between  mesmerism  and  Mind  Science,  to  indicate 
once  and  for  all  what  Quimbyism  was,  what  mes- 
merism is,  and  to  rid  her  practising  students  of  the 
custom  of  laying  hands  upon  their  patients. 

Wright  had  entered  her  class  with  some  intellectual 
perturbation  but  left  it  with  enthusiasm.  When  he 
had  completed  the  course  he  began  to  practise  in 
Lynn  and  later  he  carried  his  work  elsewhere  with 
success,  which  continued  so  long  as  he  was  an 
obedient  follower.  But  he  began  to  alter  in  his 
mental  attitude  and  to  question  the  spirituality  of 
what  he  was  doing.  He  began  to  believe  he  was 
practising  mesmerism.  Thereupon  his  power  to 
cure  began  to  wane,  until  he  lost  it  utterly.  He 
wrote  of  his  peculiar  experience  to  a  Lynn  paper 
which  published  his  letter.     He  said: 

The  9th  of  last  June  found  me  in  Knoxville, 
Tennessee,  as  assistant  to  a  former  student.  We 
met  with  good  success  in  a  majority  of  our  cases 


202  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

but  some  of  them  utterly  refused  to  yield  to  the 
treatment.  Soon  after  settling  in  Knoxville  I  be- 
gan to  question  the  propriety  of  calling  this  treat- 
ment "Moral  Science  instead  of  mesmerism. 
Away  from  the  influence  of  argument  which  the 
teacher  of  this  so-called  science  knows  how  to 
bring  to  bear  upon  students  with  such  force  as  to 
outweigh  any  attempts  they  may  make  at  the  time 
to  oppose  it,  I  commenced  to  think  more  inde- 
pendently, and  to  argue  with  myself  as  to  the  truth 
of  the  positions  we  were  called  upon  to  take.  The 
result  of  this  course  was  to  convince  me  that  I  had 
studied  the  science  of  mesmerism.^ 

Thus  was  summed  up  in  a  phrase  the  evil  which 
had  stalked  like  a  shadow  in  the  wake  of  Mary 
Baker's  religious  investigation  of  years.  The  science 
of  mesmerism,  following  upon  the  heels  of  Divine 
Science,  was  dogging  and  menacing  it,  threatening 
to  worry  and  tear  to  pieces  the  good  that  was  done. 
It  explained  in  a  word  all  her  long  struggle  with 
Quimbyism;  it  explained  the  dereliction  of  those 
who  had  been  earnest  for  a  time  and  the  inter- 
ference of  her  students'  relations  which  had  ex- 
hibited peculiarly  baleful  effects  on  her  teaching. 
The  full  significance  of  hypnotism  and  mental  sug- 
gestion did  not  come  to  her  at  once,  though  with 
that  student's  explanation  of  his  failure  dawned  the 
first  clear  vista  of  animal  magnetism. 

The  result  of  this  letter  was  soon  evident  in  Mrs. 
Glover's  life  and  affairs.  It  was  not  that  Wright 
had  abandoned  the  cause.  Wright  was  bound 
to  go  by  his  very  nature ;  intellectual  self-sufficiency 

*  Lynn  Transcript,  January  13,  1872. 


MESMERISM  DETHRONED  203 

and  scholarly  pride  were  certain  to  claim  him.  He 
had  a  brief  controversy  with  five  of  Mrs.  Glover's 
students  through  the  medium  of  the  Lynn  papers  in 
which  he  called  upon  Mrs.  Glover  to  walk  on  the 
water,  raise  the  dead,  and  live  without  air  and 
nourishment.  Then  retiring  from  the  controversy, 
he  exultantly  declared  that  Mrs.  Glover  and  her 
science  were  dead  and  buried. 

Mrs.  Glover  minded  this  no  more  than  if,  as  she 
said  to  a  woman  student,  he  should  declare  he  could 
dip  the  Atlantic  dry.  Such  harassing  of  herself  and 
work  she  had  learned  to  expect  and  knew  that  it  was 
not  vital.  As  for  Tuttle,  the  superstitious,  who 
dropped  Mind  Science  because  it  worked  results 
which  frightened  him,  he  was  not  worthy  of  more 
than  a  passing  smile ;  and  Stanley,  whose  grievance 
was  a  most  confused  demand  for  a  personal  God, 
anatomy,  and  manuscripts,  exhibiting  a  virulent 
case  of  acquisitiveness  together  with  the  fear  that 
he  was  being  duped,  was  annoying  but  negligible. 
It  was  no  one  of  these  three  students  who  seriously 
affected  Mrs.  Glover's  work. 

The  test  of  Mind  Science  came  actually  and 
vitally  in  the  mental  attitude  of  Kennedy.  She  had 
accepted  him  as  a  co-worker  with  some  hesitation. 
He  was  in  the  relation  to  her  of  a  chosen  disciple. 
To  him  she  had  expounded  more  deeply  and 
intimately  the  physically  inscrutable  and  intangible 
apprehensions  of  truth  than  to  any  other  student. 
When  this  vision  of  the  working  of  mesmerism  came 
to  her  so  clearly  in  January  of  1872,  she  would 
have  defined  it  to  him.    But  when  she  came  to  do  so. 


204  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

she  beheld  Kennedy  remove  himself  from  her  tute- 
lage. He  was  blind,  deaf,  and  immovable.  He  was 
incapable  of  perceiving  what  she  would  have  pointed 
out  to  him,  and  revealed  himself  as  never  having 
comprehended  the  nature  of  Mind  Science  and  to 
be  actually  working  with  the  processes  of  mesmerism 
and  the  hypnotic  action  of  mental  suggestion. 

That  Kennedy  actually  could  not  or  would  not 
understand  that  a  line  of  cleavage  separated  Mind 
Science  from  mesmerism  Mary  Baker  now  realized. 
She  realized  it  with  sorrow,  because  of  himself  and 
because  he  had  practised  in  her  name.  She  had 
taught  him  principle,  but  had  permitted  him  to 
make  use  of  the  method  of  laying  his  hands  upon 
his  patients.  So  she  had  permitted  Hiram  Crafts, 
Mrs.  Wentworth,  and  Miss  Bagley.  The  results 
now  shown  were  personal,  magnetic,  confusing.  In 
Kennedy's  case,  it  now  appeared,  he  had  surrounded 
himself  with  a  bevy  of  patients  who  were  not  seek- 
ing truth  but  Kennedy.  Through  such  methods  and 
practises  the  pure  doctrine  of  divine  healing  was 
liable  to  become  a  byword. 

Some  years  later  a  suit  was  brought  in  her  name, 
though  without  her  consent,  against  Tuttle  and 
Stanley  for  the  object  of  collecting  unpaid  tuition. 
At  the  trial  all  three  of  these  students,  Tuttle, 
Stanley,  and  Kennedy,  exhibited  unreservedly  their 
utter  lack  of  comprehension  of  the  first  postulate  of 
Mind  Science.  But  Kennedy  in  particular,  out  of 
his  own  mouth,  proved  himself  incapable  of  grasping 
it.  In  his  testimony,  which  was  preserved  in  the 
notes  of  the  presiding  judge,  he  said : 


MESMERISM  DETHRONED  205 

I  went  to  Lynn  to  practise  with  Mrs.  Eddy. 
Our  partnership  was  only  in  the  practise,  not  in 
teaching.  I  practised  healing  the  sick  by  physical 
manipulation.  This  mode  was  operating  upon 
the  head,  giving  vigorous  rubbing.  This  was  a 
part  of  her  system  that  I  had  learned.  The  special 
thing  that  she  was  to  teach  me  was  the  science  of 
healing  by  soul  power.  I  have  never  been  able  to 
come  to  a  knowledge  of  that  principle.  She  gave 
me  a  great  deal  of  instruction  of  the  so-called  prin- 
ciple, but  I  have  not  been  able  to  understand  it.  .  .  . 
I  was  there  at  the  time  Stanley  was  there.  I  made 
the  greatest  effort  to  practise  upon  her  principle 
and  I  have  never  had  any  proof  that  I  had  attained 
to  it/ 

This  statement  made  in  court  many  years  later 
was  the  fact  revealed  in  the  spring  of  1872.  It  was 
the  cause  of  the  separation  of  Mary  Baker  and 
Richard  Kennedy.  Stated  as  he  expressed  himself 
in  court  it  sounds  very  simple  to  a  worldling.  And 
as  Mr.  Kennedy  related  the  cause  of  his  separation 
from  Mrs.  Glover  to  the  author,  it  appears  a  reasona- 
ble and  ordinary  event.  He  said  their  separation 
was  not  due  to  a  quarrel  but  to  a  gradual  divergence 
of  views.  He  continued  practising  physical  manipu- 
lation and  has  continued  until  this  day.  He  claims 
to  have  no  knowledge  of  Christian  Science,  having 
never  read  the  text-book  and  failing  to  comprehend 
the  spiritual  significance  of  what  he  had  been  taught 
by  word  of  mouth. 

This  divergence  of  view,  that  culminated  in  the 
severance    of    their    relations,    was    developing   for 

'  McClure's  Magazine,  May,  1907. 


206  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

several  months.  The  schoolmistress,  Miss  Susie 
Magoun,  had  married  and  gone  to  hve  elsewhere.  A 
new  tenant  was  in  the  house.  Mr.  Kennedy's  social 
life  in  Lynn  had  prospered  through  Miss  Magoun's 
introductions.  His  youth,  charm,  and  affable 
address  had  made  him  happy  in  the  acquisition  of 
some  influential  acquaintances.  And  when  the  day 
came  on  which  Mrs.  Glover  and  he  mutually 
destroyed  their  contract  he  went  his  way  quite 
content.  Looked  at  from  a  purely  worldly  stand- 
point he  had  been  honorable  and  had  not  wronged 
his  teacher. 

But  Richard  Kennedy,  as  a  student,  had  absorbed 
a  great  deal  of  her  time,  and  as  a  practitioner  he  had 
absorbed  a  great  deal  more.  This  was  relatively 
unimportant;  the  vital  injustice  was  that  he  had 
misrepresented  her  Science  to  a  large  number  of 
patients  and  was  to  misrepresent  her  for  many 
years.  Perhaps  he  had  done  this  unconsciously,  even 
as  he  was  the  unconscious  agent  in  the  precipitation 
of  her  struggle  with  the  counterfeit  of  her  Science. 
Animal  magnetism  had  to  be  apprehended,  defined, 
and  stamped  as  the  "human  concept."  Doubtless 
it  was  as  well  that  the  struggle  should  be  precipitated 
through  him  as  another. 

The  conflict  of  opinion  between  these  two  resulted 
in  fixing  the  purpose  of  Mary  Baker  to  write  a  text- 
book. She  had  thus  far  taught  Mind  Science  by 
lectures  and  by  writing  out  manuscripts  for  students. 
She  distributed  such  manuscripts  unsparingly. 
These  were  copies  of  "The  Science  of  Man,"  which 
had  been  copyrighted,  and  also  disquisitions  on  the 


MESMERISM  DETHRONED  207 

Scriptures.  She  had  encouraged  her  students  to 
write  their  own  conceptions  of  certain  portions  of 
the  Scriptures,  to  stimulate  them  to  deeper  research. 
This  practise  she  discontinued.  She  saw  that  they 
were  not  fitted  to  do  such  work  any  more  than 
Kennedy  was  fitted  to  make  his  own  deductions. 
Upon  her  it  rested  to  do  the  work,  and  to  guard  her 
doctrine  with  the  utmost  zeal  from  contamination 
and  adulteration. 

When  Mary  Baker  began  to  rid  herself  completely 
of  the  relics  of  the  influence  which  Quimby  had  ex- 
erted over  her  mind,  she  ordered  all  her  students  to 
desist  from  stroking  the  head  while  treating  patients 
mentally.  She  herself  had  never  laid  hands  on  a 
patient  to  heal  him,  but  she  had  permitted  her 
students  to  practise  by  this  method.  Seeing  that  the 
method  was  not  in  accordance  with  the  principle  of 
Divine  Science,  she  wished  all  her  students  to  dis- 
continue its  practise.  Now  it  was  that  Richard 
Kennedy  absolutely  rebelled  and  left  her;  now  it 
was  that  Miss  Bagley  of  Amesbury  refused  to  be 
guided  by  her.  Wallace  W.  Weight  had  already 
come  to  grief  by  the  use  of  the  method.  Mary 
Baker  denounced  it  once  and  forever.  From  the 
spring  of  1872  manipulation,  or  physical  contact  of 
any  sort,  had  no  part  in  Christian  Science.  And  so 
at  that  early  date  she  substantiated  the  Science  of 
Man  and  Divine  healing. 


CHAPTER    XIV 

THE   FIRST   EDITION   OF   SCIENCE   AND   HEALTH 

HER  application  to  her  purpose  from  1872  to 
1875  was  more  rigid,  more  exclusive,  more 
laborious  than  it  had  ever  been.  Her  experience  in 
Stoughton  and  Amesbury  had  yielded  the  "Science 
of  Man"  manuscript  and  also  certain  commentaries 
on  the  Bible.  Now  the  book  which  she  purposed 
writing  was  to  contain  the  complete  statement  of 
Christian  Science.  It  was  the  book  and  nothing  but 
the  book  which  engrossed  her.  These  three  years 
saw  her  in  public  rarely,  except  for  the  walks  she 
took  by  the  sea,  those  visits  to  the  Red  Rocks  where 
she  used  to  linger  long  in  meditation.  Of  these 
three  years  there  is  very  little  to  record  of  her  activity. 
But  they  flowered  in  the  first  edition  of  "Science 
and  Health."  .  If  any  one  reading  this  life  thinks 
this  great  work  was  accomplished  easily,  or  that 
when  she  said  the  book  was  given  to  her  as  a  reve- 
lation, she  meant  that  a  personal  Deity  literally 
guided  her  hand  across  the  pages,  framing  the 
words  for  her,  let  him  consider  the  ceaseless  mental 
toil  and  spiritual  application  stretching  between  the 
miraculous  recovery  in  1866  and  the  publication  of 
her  book  in  1875. 

When   Mrs.    Glover   severed   her   relations   with 
Richard   Kennedy,  he   removed  to   another  house 


FIRST  EDITION  OF  SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH     209 

but  she  remained  in  her  rooms  at  South  Common 
and  Shepard  streets  for  several  months.  She  had 
with  her  a  great  deal  at  this  time  a  little  girl  named 
Susie  Felt,  a  child  of  twelve.  Mrs.  Glover  took  her 
meals  at  the  child's  home  and  the  little  maid  was  so 
attached  to  her  that  she  spent  as  much  time  with 
her  as  she  was  permitted.  The  child  found  this 
woman,  whom  her  elders  sometimes  thought  distant 
and  somber,  to  be  lovely,  gracious,  and  sweet.  Like 
Lucy  Wentworth  she  was  devoted  to  her.  To-day 
she  cherishes  a  ring,  a  book,  and  a  picture  as  me- 
mentos of  those  happy  hours  when  she  had  the  com- 
panionship of  this  great  soul,  relaxed  from  the  toil 
of  the  day,  when  she  would  tell  her  the  most  won- 
drous things  her  ears  had  ever  heard.  Such  hours 
were  hers  in  the  twilight  alone  with  Mary  Baker 
when  the  divine  overflow  suffused  sweet  dew  that 
could  not  harm  the  tender  violets  of  a  child's  un- 
folding thoughts. 

But  the  dove-like  cooing  of  a  little  child's  ques- 
tions or  the  harmonious  enfolding  of  the  diapason 
of  the  sea,  when  she  listened  to  its  voice,  crouched 
alone  on  the  brown  rocks,  were  not  all  that  reached 
her.  The  change  and  fluidity  of  life  was  in  the 
waves,  in  the  flight  of  the  gulls,  and  in  the  drifting 
ships.  Returning  to  the  city  from  what  w^as  in 
those  days  a  rough  unwalled  beach,  she  would  see 
the  lights  of  the  Lynn  factories  betokening  the  pas- 
sionate struggle  of  human  endeavor.  Had  she 
stood  erect  on  those  rocks  by  the  sea,  erect  in  spirit 
while  her  body  crouched  for  safety  against  its 
boulders,  had  she  felt  her  ego  slip  away  from  her 

14 


210  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

in  some  supreme  moment  when  divine  sense  lifted 
her  to  the  consciousness  of  spiritual  being  above 
the  waves  of  time?  Even  so,  she  must  still  return 
to  the  city,  to  the  work  in  hand,  and  alas,  to  the 
shock  of  events. 

Some  of  her  students  had  remained  loyal  to  her 
and  to  her  teaching.  Of  these  were  George  Barry, 
S.  P.  Bancroft,  Dorcas  Rawson,  and  Miranda  Rice. 
She  lived  for  a  time  with  Dorcas  Rawson,  and  she 
lived  at  several  boarding-houses  until  she  secured 
a  home  of  her  own.  When  she  left  South  Common 
street,  a  student,  George  Barry,  took  charge  of  her 
furnishing.  She  returned  to  live  for  a  time  with  the 
Clarks  where  she  had  resided  directly  after  Dr. 
Patterson's  desertion.  George  Clark,  who  supplied 
the  graphic  picture  of  Mrs.  Eddy  in  those  days,  was 
a  witness  for  her  in  her  divorce  suit  brought  in  Salem 
in  1873.  He  says  that  Mrs.  Eddy  waited  until 
nearly  night  for  her  case  to  be  called  and  they 
thought  it  would  not  be  disposed  of  that  day.  But 
when  she  was  called  to  the  witness  stand  the  judge 
asked  her  why  her  husband  had  deserted  her.  She 
replied,  "Because  he  feared  arrest."  "Arrest  for 
what.^"  asked  the  judge.  "For  adultery,"  Mrs. 
Eddy  replied  quietly.  The  judge  made  a  brief  ex- 
amination of  her  witnesses  and  the  decree  was 
granted. 

George  Clark  asserts  that  Mrs.  Eddy  worked  very 
industriously  at  her  writing  while  at  his  mother's 
house  and  he  at  one  time  carried  a  prospectus  of 
her  book  to  Adams  &  Co.,  Publishers,  in  Brom- 
field  street.    Her  manuscript  was  not  accepted,  but 


FIRST   EDITION  OF   SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH     211 

one  of  his  own  which  he  had  taken  with  him  at 
the  same  time  was.  Clark's  book  was  a  boy's 
story  of  sea-going  Hfe  which  the  pubUsher  felt 
would  sell  well.  He  rejected  Mrs.  Glover's  book 
for  the  reason  that  he  saw  no  possibilities  in  it  for 
profit. 

Mrs.  Glover  had  accompanied  Clark  to  Boston 
and  they  returned  together  late  in  the  afternoon. 
She  made  no  comment  on  her  failure,  but  cheer- 
fully encouraged  the  young  man  over  his  own 
venture,  saying  his  wholesome,  breezy  story  would 
sell  well  and  he  might  come  to  be  a  great  author. 
He  was  much  engrossed  with  those  thoughts  of 
greatness  when  they  walked  through  the  Lynn 
streets  in  the  early  evening  nearing  home.  She  sud- 
denly caught  him  by  the  arm.  "Stop,  George," 
she  cried.  "Do  you  see  that  church?  I  shall  have 
a  church  of  my  own  some  day." 

She  struck  her  hands  together  as  she  said  this  and 
then  stood  for  a  minute  lost  in  thought.  The  young 
man  was  ashamed  of  his  selfishness,  and  for  a  time 
really  wished  that  it  had  been  her  book,  and  not  his, 
which  had  been  accepted.  But  her  book  was  not 
ready,  nor  was  it  to  be  published  in  the  ordinary 
way  for  the  profit  of  a  bookman. 

In  the  spring  of  1875  Mrs.  Glover  was  living  in 
a  boarding-house  at  Number  9  Broad  street.  She 
had  moved  in  these  three  years  several  times.  Her 
doctrine  and  her  absorbed  life  had  brought  her  in 
conflict  with  many  minds  and  many  persons.  Dis- 
cussion, controversy,  and  ridicule  had  pursued  her, 
making   application  to  her  work  doubly   difficult. 


212  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

She  had  nearly  completed  her  book,  however,  and 
what  she  needed  was  absolute  peace  and  seclusion 
in  order  that  she  might  put  those  important  finish- 
ing touches  to  her  work  which  would  bring  it  to- 
gether, unify  it,  complete  it.  Leaning  at  the  window 
of  her  room,  she  gazed  down  the  leafy  street,  think- 
ing of  the  dining-room  below  stairs  and  its  many 
discordant  personalities,  the  latest  gibes  of  her 
worldly  critics,  the  latest  smiles  and  glances  and 
expressive  shrugs.  Was  every  step  of  the  way  of 
this  book  to  be  disputed  by  such  hindrance  and 
intrusion.^  Leaning  there  at  the  window,  she 
breathed  a  silent  prayer  for  a  resting-place. 

Lifting  her  eyes,  she  saw  across  the  way  a  little 
frame  house  with  a  sign  affixed  stating  that  it  was 
for  sale.  It  was  a  two  story  and  a  half  dwelling 
with  a  small  lawn  around  it  and  a  shade  tree  at  the 
corner.  It  had  little  bow  windows  and  tiny  bal- 
conies. Contemplating  it,  she  resolved  to  own  it. 
It  should  be  the  first  home  of  Christian  Science; 
there  she  would  complete  her  book. 

This  was  not.  an  impossible  venture.  Mrs.  Glover 
had  received  for  tuition  some  funds  which  she  had 
guarded  against  the  possibility  of  publishing  her 
own  book.  Her  life  had  been  frugal,  orderly,  and 
well-planned.  Nothing  but  the  book  had  kept  her 
from  organizing  large  classes.  With  her  own  home, 
her  work  could  now  go  forward  with  better  progress. 
She  unfolded  her  plan  to  her  little  group  of  students 
and  certain  of  them  undertook  the  business  arrange- 
ments. The  Essex  County  registry  of  deeds  shows 
that  on  March  31,  1875,  Francis  E.  Besse,  in  con- 


THE    "  LI'lTLE    HOUSE    IV    BROAD    STREET,""    LYXK,    MASSACHUSETTS 

Where  Mrs.  Eddy  completed  the  text  of  the  First  Edition  of 
Science  and  Health 


FIRST  EDITION  OF  SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH     213 

sideration  of  $5,650,  deeded  to  Mary  Baker  Glover 
the  property  of  Number  8  Broad  street. 

When  Mrs.  Glover  moved  into  her  new  home  her 
means  were  so  Umited  she  was  obliged  to  lease  the 
greater  part  of  the  house.  She  reserved  for  herself 
the  front  parlor  on  the  first  floor  for  a  class-room 
and  furnished  it  plainly  wath  chairs  and  tables. 
On  the  attic  floor  she  also  reserved  a  small  bedroom, 
lighted  only  by  a  skylight  which  was  in  the  sloping 
roof  and  could  be  lifted  like  a  trap  for  ventilation. 
In  this  garret  chamber  she  finished  her  manuscript 
of  "Science  and  Health,"  practically  the  work  of 
nine  years.  Here  she  read  the  proofs  of  the  first 
edition  and  prepared  the  revisions  for  the  second 
and  third  editions.  The  room  was  austerely  fur- 
nished with  a  carpet  of  matting,  a  bed  and  dressing 
bureau,  a  table  and  straight-backed  chair.  Its  one 
article  of  luxury  was  an  old-fashioned  hair-cloth 
rocker.  No  one  entered  this  room  but  Mary  Baker 
until  the  book  was  finished.  On  the  wall  she  had 
hung  the  framed  inscription,  "Thou  shalt  have  no 
other  gods  before  me." 

The  greater  part  of  Mrs.  Glover's  new  home  was 
given  over  to  tenants.  Necessity  compelled  her  to 
depend  on  such  sources  for  an  income.  She  was 
sometimes  fortunate  in  her  tenants,  but  occasionally 
otherwise.  Her  own  simple  and  well-regulated  life, 
entirely  devoted  to  religion,  was  never  the  cause  of 
comment,  except  as  criticism  always  attaches  to  a 
new  religious  movement.  The  history  of  Methodism, 
of  Quakerism,  of  Unitarianism  abundantly  shows 
this.     The  daily  attendance  of  her  students,  their 


214  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

devotion  to  their  teacher,  and  zeal  for  their  faith 
created  astonishment  in  Lynn  and  so  caused  some 
gossip.  The  purple-and-gold  sign,  "Christian 
Science  Home,"  which  arched  the  door  was  the 
cause  of  much  speculation.  It  became  a  common 
thing  for  cripples  and  invalids  to  go  to  the  house  for 
treatment,  and  many  remarkable  cures  which  Mrs. 
Eddy  performed  instantaneously  are  recorded. 

During  the  summer  the  little  place  grew  most 
attractive.  The  affectionate  zeal  of  her  students, 
many  of  whom  she  had  healed  from  serious  com- 
plaints or  diseases  and  some  of  whom  she  had  re- 
claimed from  intemperate  lives,  made  her  gardens 
bloom,  kept  her  grass-plot  like  velvet,  and  relieved 
the  austerity  of  her  parlor  with  decoration.  Mrs. 
Glover's  balconies  were  filled  with  calla  lilies  of 
which  she  was  particularly  fond,  and  when  she  stood 
among  them  tending  and  caring  for  them  with  the 
sunhght  sifting  through  the  leaves  of  the  elm,  mak- 
ing splashes  of  green  and  gold  upon  her  cool  white 
gown,  she  made  a  picture  of  composure  and  purity. 

Early  in  the  summer  Mrs.  Glover  gave  the  manu- 
script of  her  book  into  the  hands  of  a  printer.  A 
fund  was  subscribed  to  by  some  of  the  students  to 
insure  its  publication,  and  was  repaid  to  them  under 
circumstances  to  be  related.  There  was  some  halt 
in  its  publication,  even  now  that  everything  had  ap- 
parently been  done  for  its  forthcoming.  Mrs.  Eddy 
has  stated  in  her  autobiography  the  peculiar  cir- 
cumstances of  this  delay.  She  had  hesitated  to  in- 
clude in  the  book  a  chapter  on  animal  magnetism, 
and  she  believes  it  was  the  Divine  purpose  that  this 


FIRST  EDITION  OF  SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH     215 

chapter  should  be  written.  Months  had  passed 
since  the  printer  received  her  copy.  He  had  been 
paid  nearly  $1,000  but  he  still  delayed,  and  all 
efforts  to  persuade  him  to  finish  the  book  were  in 
vain. 

Contrary  to  her  inclinations,  Mrs.  Glover  set  to 
work  at  the  painful  task  of  delineating  the  counter- 
feit of  Christian  Science.  She  wrote  out  the  manu- 
script for  a  complete  chapter  and  with  this  started 
to  Boston  to  confer  with  the  stubborn  printer.  The 
printer  had  himself  started  to  see  her,  however,  to 
tell  her  that  he  had  already  prepared  the  copy 
which  he  had  in  hand  and  wished  her  to  give  him 
sufficient  more  to  comprise  a  closing  chapter. 
They  met  at  the  Lynn  railway  station  and  both 
were  astonished.  He  had  come  to  a  standstill 
through  motives  and  circumstances  unknown  to 
her,  but  had  resumed  his  work,  as  his  explanations 
showed,  at  the  same  time  that  she  had  begun  writ- 
ing the  pages  she  had  been  reluctant  to  pen;  and 
now  that  he  was  ready  for  more  copy  he  met  her 
on  her  way  to  him  with  the  closing  chapter  of  the 
first  edition  of  "Science  and  Health." 

The  book  came  out  in  the  fall,  the  edition  number- 
ing one  thousand.  It  was  a  stout  volume  bound  in 
green  cloth,  a  succinct,  concise,  and  lucid  statement 
of  Christian  Science.  Though  Mrs.  Eddy  has  many 
times  since  revised  this  book,  her  revision  has  always 
been  for  what  she  believed  to  be  an  improvement  of 
expression.  The  essential  statements  are  the  same 
as  in  the  original  volume.  Because  of  these  subse- 
quent labors,  because  she  has  rearranged  the  order 


216  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

of  the  chapters,  enlarged  the  explanation  in  certain 
passages,  curtailed  it  in  others,  altered  the  sequence 
of  sentences,  struck  out  unnecessary  illustration  to 
make  room  for  the  irresistible  enforcement  of  the 
declaration  of  her  doctrine,  certain  critics  have  said 
that  the  original  work  has  disappeared  in  the  book 
that  stands  to-day,  and  a  brilliant  satirist  goes  so 
far  as  to  say  that  "Science  and  Health"  is  the  pro- 
duct of  another  mind  than  Mary  Baker  Eddy's. 

Because  of  the  supreme  audacity  and  unscrupu- 
lous wickedness  of  such  an  assertion,  this  first 
edition  is  indeed  a  "precious  volume."  It  holds, 
like  the  monstrance,  that  receptacle  in  which  the 
consecrated  bread  is  shown  to  the  multitude,  the 
verities  of  Christian  Science.  Was  ever  a  book  so 
attacked  as  this  ?  First,  this  famous  critic  declared 
it  absurd;  second,  that  its  ideas  were  not  original; 
third,  that  "every  single  detail  of  it  was  conceived 
and  performed  by  another."  Witness  the  three  dif- 
ferent standpoints  of  the  satirical  assailant.  First, 
the  book  is  absurd ;  the  critic  could  n't  understand 
it;  he  would  "rather  saw  wood"  than  to  try,  for  he 
does  not  find  the  work  of  analyzing  it  easy.  Second, 
maybe  she  who  claims  to  be  author  did  write  it, 
but  the  ideas  are  not  original,  for  the  great  idea 
of  this  book,  "the  thing  back  of  it,"  the  critic  has 
come  to  see,  is  "wholly  gracious  and  beautiful;  the 
power,  through  loving  mercifulness  and  compas- 
sion, to  heal  fleshly  ills  and  pains  and  griefs."  ^ 
And  he  does  not  see  how  such  an  idea  could  pos- 
sibly interest  the  accredited  author.     He  does  not 

*  Mark  Twain,  "Christian  Science,"  p.  284. 


FIRST  EDITION  OF  SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH     217 

see !  But  mark  the  culminating  effect  of  the  book 
upon  him  and  then  come  to  his  third  standpoint. 

Why  should  such  an  idea  interest  Mary  Baker 
Eddy,  he  wonders,  unless  she  is,  as  her  followers  be- 
lieve, "patient,  gentle,  loving,  compassionate,  noble- 
hearted,  unselfish,  sinless  —  a  profound  thinker, 
an  able  writer,  a  divine  personage,  an  inspired 
messenger."  ^  And  why  should  they  not  believe 
her  so.?  The  critic  says:  "She  has  delivered  to 
them  a  religion  which  has  revolutionized  their  lives, 
banished  the  glooms  that  shadowed  them,  and 
filled  them  and  flooded  them  with  sunshine  and 
gladness  and  peace;  a  religion  which  has  no  hell; 
a  religion  whose  heaven  is  not  put  off  to  another 
time,  with  a  break  and  a  gulf  between,  but  begins 
here  and  now,  and  melts  into  eternity."  ^ 

"Let  the  reader  turn  to  the  chapter  on  prayer  and 
compare  that  wise  and  sane  and  elevated  and  lucid 
and  compact  piece  of  work  with  the  aforesaid  pref- 
ace [the  preface  to  the  third  edition]  and  with  Mrs. 
Eddy's  poetry,"  says  this  critic. 

Indeed,  let  him  compare  it  with  Mrs.  Eddy's 
sublime  hymn, 

"Shepherd,  show  me  how  to  go 
O'er  the  hillside  steep. 
How  to  gather,  how  to  sow. 
How  to  feed  Thy  sheep." 

But  the  critic's  third  standpoint  is:  "I  think  she 
has  from  the  very  beginning  been  claiming  as  her 

*  Mark  Twain,  "Christian  Science,"  p.  285. 
»  Ibid.,  p.  286. 


218  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

own  another  person's  book,  and  wearing  as  her  own 
property  laurels  rightfully  belonging  to  that  person 
—  the  real  author  of  'Science  and  Health.'  " 

Who  is  this  real  author  who  was  first,  absurd; 
second,  unoriginal;  third,  an  inspired  messenger? 
The  real  author  of  every  word  of  the  first  edition, 
and  every  word,  phrase,  paragraph,  and  chapter 
of  the  very  last  edition  is  the  one  who  wrote  the 
limping  verses  of  girlhood,  the  so-called  "Quimby" 
manuscripts  with  their  confusion  of  ideas,  the  state- 
ment of  the  Science  of  Man,  Genesis  and  Apo- 
calypse, and  finally  "Science  and  Health."  She 
was  the  precocious  and  nervous  girl  educated  for 
the  most  part  at  home ;  she  was  the  suffering  invalid 
whose  pure  religion  was  tampered  with  by  the  mes- 
meric influence  of  a  hypnotist ;  she  was  the  poor  and 
devoted  Christian,  healing  without  price  and  dis- 
tributing her  manuscripts  to  whomsoever  would 
read  them;  she  was  the  absorbed  student  and  de- 
votee, maligned  by  unfaithful  students. 

Who  else  was  it  that  the  scoffing  Horace  Went- 
worth  declared  he  did  not  dislike  but  thought  ridicu- 
lous when  she  sat  in  his  mother's  parlor  and  said  she 
had  a  mission  from  God  to  complete  the  work  of 
Jesus  Christ  on  earth  ?  Who  else  was  it  that  wrote 
the  manuscript  which  Mrs.  Catherine  I.  Clapp,  the 
Wentworth's  cousin  Kate,  was  employed  to  copy 
and  which  this  amanuensis  has  herself  said  con- 
tained the  first  form  of  the  ideas  subsequently  given 
to  the  world  in  "Science  and  Health,"  certain  para- 
graphs of  which  she  used  to  scoff  at  and  make 
fun  of  to  her  intimates?     Who  else  was  it   who 


FIRST  EDITION  OF  SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH     219 

worked  on  the  book  Mother  Webster  called  Mrs. 
Glover's  "Bible"  when  rustics  of  Amesbury  gap- 
ingly  watched  to  see  her  walk  upon  the  Merrimac 
River?  Who  else  was  it  that  prepared  the  pros- 
pectus that  George  Clark  carried  to  a  Boston  printer 
and  had  rejected  ?  Who  else  was  it  that  wrote  the 
manuscripts  the  student  Stanley  contended  for  and 
thought  he  was  wronged  because  he  could  not 
possess  ?  Who  else  was  it  that  prepared  that  clos- 
ing chapter  on  animal  magnetism  and  carried  it  to 
the  printer?  Who  else  was  it  wrote  the  scientific 
statement  of  being? 

Internal  evidence  or  higher  criticism  will  not  di- 
vorce this  work  from  its  author  Mary  Baker  Eddy 
any  more  than  it  will  divorce  the  fourth  gospel 
from  St.  John.  The  first  edition  of  "Science  and 
Health,"  which  the  critics  of  that  day  fell  upon  with 
ironic  glee,  stands  as  the  model  of  the  finished 
structure  of  to-day.  It  was  written  under  the  sever- 
est hardships  and  was  revised  painstakingly  in  the 
midst  of  the  multitudinous  duties  of  a  leader.  It 
has  been  plagiarized  and  pirated  from,  vilified  and 
burlesqued,  but  it  will  stand. 


CHAPTER    XV 

A   CONFLICT   OF   PERSONALITIES 

THE  house  at  Broad  street  was  purchased  by  Mrs. 
Glover  that  it  might  become  a  refuge  from  the 
distraction  of  fleeting  worldly  interests  encountered 
in  boarding-houses;  that  it  might  be  a  haven  of 
security  insuring  her  against  moving  from  place  to 
place  and  the  intrusion  of  elements  of  thought  likely 
to  create  discord  in  her  little  flock  of  students;  in 
fact  it  was  bought  for  a  home  and  designed  for  a 
center  of  peace.  How  shortly  it  became  a  storm 
center,  a  theater  of  intense  mental  disturbance, 
must  be  shown ;  for  it  was  while  living  in  this  house 
that  Mary  Baker  had  enough  of  agitation,  through 
the  discord  of  her  early  students,  the  dereliction  and 
menace  of  those  she  had  cherished  as  friends  and 
intimate  aids,  the  failure  of  the  second  edition  of 
her  book,  the  harassment  of  a  series  of  petty  law- 
suits, and  ultimately,  the  revelation  of  a  dastardly 
plot  as  ingenious  as  it  was  diabolical,  to  make  her 
wish  to  leave  not  only  the  house  but  Lynn,  and  to 
seek  a  new  base  of  activity. 

A  great  work  of  promulgation  lay  before  the 
founder  of  Christian  Science.  The  twilight  of  dawn 
was  revealing  its  elements  in  her  mind,  but  they  did 
not  yet  stand  forth  distinctly.  The  signs  of  the 
times  were  as  yet  but  vague.     Looking  backward, 


CONFLICT  OF  PERSONALITIES  221 

philosophic  students  of  history  declare  that  no  such 
period  of  freedom  and  pure  democracy  was  ever 
experienced  in  the  world's  history  as  was  enjoyed 
in  the  United  States  from  about  1870  to  1880.  What 
was  to  come  after  in  the  despotism  of  trusts  and  the 
menace  of  great  wealth  in  the  hands  of  a  few  was 
not  yet  dreamed  of.  America  felt  young,  happy,  and 
virtuous.  A  revived  industrialism,  following  the 
disastrous  waste  of  the  Civil  War,  made  the  con- 
sciouness  of  the  people  buoyant.  No  one  thought  of 
criticizing  democracy.  Only  that  little  group  of 
transcendentalists  in  New  England,  known  as  the 
Brook  Farm  colony,  had  ever  ventured  to  raise  the 
warning  cry  of  the  danger  of  a  mechanical  society 
plunging  ahead  to  materialism.  And  the  seeds  of 
that  social  experiment  had  not  yielded  its  harvest 
of  socialism. 

But  Mary  Baker  had  the  nature  of  a  true  seer. 
No  more  than  the  great  Way-shower  of  Palestine 
would  she  have  dreamed  of  leading  a  few  followers 
into  a  community  to  make  a  stand  against  the  trend 
of  the  world.  Like  Him,  she  knew  the  truth  must 
be  sown  broadcast.  But  the  seed  must  first  be 
grown  in  the  little  garden  plot  among  her  earliest 
students.  Renan  has  said  that  Jesus  could  not  pos- 
sibly have  had  a  knowledge  of  Plato  or  of  Buddha 
or  of  Zoroaster;  yet  He  was  aware,  by  the  subtle 
sympathy  of  humanity,  of  the  elements  of  the  great 
philosophic  speculations  of  His  age.  It  is  possible 
that  even  a  scholar  like  Renan  may  be  mistaken  in 
his  judgment  as  to  how  the  seer  of  God  becomes 
possessed  of  the  needs  of  his  time.     Mary  Baker 


222  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

was  not  a  sociologist,  a  political  economist ;  she  was 
not  concerned  with  those  social  passionists  whose 
philosophy  was  shaped  at  the  universities,  and  who 
were  insisting  upon  the  religion  of  democracy.  But 
in  her  heart  of  hearts  was  the  seed  of  truth  which 
was  to  multiply  for  the  health  of  her  age. 

Classes  in  Christian  Science  were  formed  almost 
immediately  after  Mrs.  Glover  was  settled  in  her  new 
home.  All  during  the  summer  of  1875,  in  spite 
of  laborious  hours  spent  in  her  little  study  under 
the  eaves,  she  conducted  classes,  and  these  were 
more  numerously  attended  than  were  those  formerly 
held  at  South  Common  street.  Though  her  charge 
for  tuition  had  been  advanced  from  $100  to  $300, 
Mrs.  Glover's  income  was  still  meager  for  the  rea- 
son that  she  privately  admitted  the  greater  per- 
centage of  her  students  without  fee,  teaching  them 
gratis  that  the  work  might  the  more  rapidly  spread. 
Payment  was  required  from  those  who  were  able, 
and  some  made  their  payments  in  instalments. 
Time  and  experience  proved  that  those  who  paid 
valued  the  treasure  they  secured,  while  those  who 
did  not  very  shortly  allowed  it  to  become  valueless. 
The  weekly  wage  of  the  toiler  is  of  infinite  sweetness 
to  him,  while  a  munificent  allowance  is  an  unpal- 
atable surfeit  of  indulgence  to  an  ingrate.  For  in 
human  nature  is  the  instinct  to  value  only  that  which 
we  acquire  by  some  individual  energy.  The  gospel 
is  as  free  as  the  sunshine,  but  the  yoke  and  the 
burden,  the  leaving  of  father  and  mother,  are  indi- 
cations of  the  service  required;  and  diffused  sun- 
shine is  regained  only  by  labor  as  in  mining  for  coal 


CONFLICT  OF  PERSONALITIES  223 

and  diamonds.  Concerning  the  tuition  fee  for 
class  instruction  Mrs.  Eddy  has  written  in  "Retro- 
spection and  Introspection": 

When  God  impelled  me  to  set  a  price  on  my 
instruction  in  Christian  Science  Mind-healing,  I 
could  think  of  no  financial  equivalent  for  an  im- 
partation  of  a  knowledge  of  that  divine  power  which 
heals ;  but  I  was  led  to  name  three  hundred  dollars 
as  the  price  for  each  pupil  in  one  course  of  lessons 
at  my  college,  —  a  startling  sum  for  tuition  lasting 
barely  three  weeks.  This  amount  greatly  troubled 
me.  I  shrank  from  asking  it,  but  was  finally  led, 
by  a  strange  providence,  to  accept  this  fee.  God 
has  since  shown  me,  in  multitudinous  ways,  the 
wisdom  of  this  decision;  and  I  beg  disinterested 
people  to  ask  my  loyal  students  if  they  consider 
three  hundred  dollars  any  real  equivalent  for  my 
instruction  during  twelve  half-days,  or  even  in  half 
as  many  lessons.  Nevertheless,  my  list  of  indigent 
charity  scholars  is  very  large,  and  I  have  had  as 
many  as  seventeen  in  one  class. ^ 

Among  the  students  in  the  first  class  held  in 
Broad  street  was  Daniel  H.  Spofford,  a  man  who 
figured  largely  in  the  events  of  the  next  few  years. 
He  came  from  New  Hampshire,  and  as  a  youth  had 
lived  in  Eastern  Massachusetts,  working  as  a  chore 
boy  on  farms  and  later  as  a  watchmaker's  appren- 
tice until  he  entered  the  army  at  the  age  of  nine- 
teen. He  served  through  the  Civil  War  and  when 
he  was  mustered  out  returned  to  Lynn  and  entered 
the  shoe-shops.  He  first  met  Mrs.  Glover  in  South 
Common  street.     He  did  not  enter  her  class  there, 

*  "Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  71. 


224  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

but  had  access  to  her  manuscripts  through  another 
student  and  copied  them,  or  portions  of  them,  for 
his  private  perusal.  Leaving  Lynn  for  a  three 
years'  sojourn  in  Southern  and  Western  states,  he 
carried  these  copies  about  with  him,  pondering  and 
studying  them.  Being  awakened  to  a  faith  which 
he  but  partially  grasped,  he  returned  to  Lynn  and 
attempted  to  practise  Mind-healing  without  further 
acquaintance  with  the  author  of  the  manu- 
scripts. 

Mrs.  Glover  heard  of  this  man  and  his  efforts  to 
practise  her  doctrine.  She  smiled  at  the  excited 
students  who  reported  the  facts  to  her  and  sent  a 
messenger  to  him  with  a  note  which  read:  "Mr. 
Spofford,  I  tender  you  a  cordial  invitation  to  join 
my  next  class  and  receive  my  instruction  in  healing 
the  sick  without  medicine,  —  without  money  and 
without  price."  So  Mr.  Spofford  became  one  of 
those  students  who  because  of  his  qualities  was 
given  his  instruction  gratis.^ 

'  Mr.  Spofford  recently  made  an  affidavit  to  the  effect  that  he  met  Mary 
Baker  Glover  in  1870,  that  she  taught  metaphysical  heahng  from  manuscripts 
the  authorship  of  which  she  attributed  to  P.  P.  Quimby.  Yet  Daniel  Spofford, 
shortly  after  his  graduation  from  her  class  in  May,  1875,  unequivocally  as- 
cribed to  this  same  Mary  Baker  Glover  the  authorship  and  discovery  of  Chris- 
tian Science  and  signed  his  name  to  a  resolution  drawn  up  for  the  purpose  of 
creating  an  organization  of  Christian  Scientists.  Mr.  Spofford  himself  pro- 
duces the  data  which  contradicts  his  own  affidavit.  The  author  has  recently 
visited  Mr.  Spofford  at  his  present  home  in  a  country  settlement  between  Haver- 
hill and  Amesbury.  1  went  for  the  express  purpose  of  asking  him  to  explain 
the  discrepancy  between  his  statements  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  teachings,  the  one  in 
his  affida\'it  printed  in  McClure's  Magazine  for  May,  1907,  and  the  one  in  the 
resolution  which  he  helped  to  draw  up  in  1875. 

Mr.  Spofford  is  to-day  a  man  about  sixty-five,  slightly  bent  in  carriage,  with 
clear  blue  eyes  and  whitened  hair.  His  manner  is  very  gentle  and  courteous, 
and  his  personality  sensitive  and  I  should  say,  idealistic.    Mr.  Spofford  made 


CONFLICT  OF  PERSONALITIES  225 

It  was  directly  after  Mr.  Spofford's  completion 
of  class  work  that  he  called  together  a  raeeting  of 
students  for  the  purpose  of  arranging  for  renting  a ' 
hall  and  raising  a  subscription  toward  sustaining 
Mrs.  Glover  as  a  teacher  and  instructor  in  weekly 
services.  Mr.  Spofford's  emotional  and  moral  na- 
ture had  been  deeply  stirred  by  his  class  work,  so 
truly  affected  that  he  was  able  to  say  thirty-five 
years  after  to  hostile  critics  of  Mrs.  Eddy  that  no 
price  could  be  put  upon  what  Mrs.  Glover  gave  her 
students,  that  the  mere  manuscripts  which  he  had 
formerly  studied  were,  compared  to  her  expounding 
of  them,  as  the  printed  page  of  a  musical  score  com- 
pared to  its  interpretation  by  a  master. 

no  immediate  reply  to  my  question  as  to  the  disparity.  After  some  hesitation 
he  turned  from  the  question  by  saying,  "  I  believe  Mrs.  Eddy  is  the  sole  author 
of  'Science  and  Health'  and  I  believe  it  is  the  greatest  book  in  the  world 
outside  the  Bible.  ...  I  don't  wish  it  to  be  understood  that  I  have  said  Chris- 
tian Science  was  Quimbyism.  I  said  that  Mrs.  Eddy  taught  some  of  the 
Quimby  doctrine  when  I  first  knew  her  in  1870.  Mrs.  Eddy  developed  her 
own  ideas  and  wrote  her  own  book,  'Science  and  Health,'  and  I  was  the  pub- 
lisher of  the  first  edition  and  1  know  that  book  thoroughly.  I  don't  confuse  in 
my  own  mind  the  work  of  Quimby  and  of  Mrs.  Eddy.  I  don't  see  why  the 
world  should  do  so.  It  is  clear  to  me  that  Mrs.  Eddy  at  first  taught  some  of 
the  ideas  of  Quimby;  that  later  she  abandoned  those  ideas  entirely  for  her 
own,  incorporating  her  own  system  of  rehgious  interpretation  in  her  book." 

Mr.  Spofford  stated  that  he  had  been  forced  by  persons  who  came  into  her 
circle  to  abandon  Mrs.  Eddy  and  the  teaching  of  Christian  Science.  Mr.  Spof- 
ford suppUed  the  aforesaid  magazine  with  a  private  letter  of  Mrs.  Eddy  to  him- 
self, written  before  her  marriage  to  Dr.  Eddy.  In  that  letter  occurs  this  passage : 

"  No  student  or  mortal  has  tried  to  have  you  leave  me  that  I  know  of.  Dr. 
Eddy  has  tried  to  have  you  stay.  You  are  in  a  mistake ;  it  is  God  and  not  man 
who  has  separated  us  and  for  the  reason  I  begin  to  learn.  Do  not  think  of  re- 
turning to  me  again.  .  .  .  God  produces  the  separation  and  I  submit  to  it.  So 
must  you.  There  is  no  cloud  between  us,  but  the  way  you  set  me  up  for  a 
Dagon  is  wrong,  and  now  I  implore  you  to  return  forever  from  this  error  of 
personality  and  go  alone  to  God  as  I  have  taught  you."  —  Human  Life,  July, 
1907. 

15 


226  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

The  meeting  of  students  which  Mr.  Spofford 
called  together  appointed  a  committee  to  carry  out 
the  will  of  the  meeting  and  the  committee  was 
composed  of  the  three  who  supposedly  stood  nearest 
to  the  teacher  at  the  time,  each  one  of  whom  was 
to  participate  in  one  of  the  petty  lawsuits  which 
presently  involved  the  community  of  students  in 
strife.  These  students  composed  for  the  time  a 
committee  harmonious  in  devotion  to  the  cause  and 
enthusiastic  for  its  furtherance.  They  drew  up  the 
following  resolutions : 

Whereas,  in  times  not  long  past,  the  Science 
of  healing,  new  to  the  age,  and  far  in  advance  of 
all  other  modes,  was  introduced  into  the  city  of 
Lynn  by  its  discoverer,  a  certain  lady,  Mary  Baker 
Glover, 

And,  whereas,  many  friends  spread  the  good 
tidings  throughout  the  place,  and  bore  aloft  the 
standard  of  life  and  truth  which  had  declared  free- 
dom to  many  manacled  with  the  bonds  of  disease 
or  error, 

And,  whereas,  by  the  wicked  and  wilful  dis- 
obedience of  an  individual,  who  has  no  name  in 
Love,  Wisdom,  or  Truth,  the  light  was  obscured 
by  clouds  of  misinterpretations  and  mists  of  mys- 
tery, so  that  God's  work  was  hidden  from  the 
world  and  derided  in  the  streets, 

Now,  therefore,  we  students  and  advocates  of 
this  moral  science  called  the  Science  of  Life,  have 
arranged  with  the  said  Mary  Baker  Glover  to  preach 
to  us  or  direct  our  meetings  on  the  Sabbath  of  each 
week,  and  hereby  covenant  with  one  another,  and 
by  these  presents  do  publish  and  proclaim  that  we 
have  agreed  and  do  each  and  all  agree  to  pay  weekly, 
for  one  year,  beginning  with  the  sixth  day  of  June, 


CONFLICT   OF  PERSONALITIES  227 

A.  D.  1875,  to  a  treasurer  chosen  by  at  least  seven 
students  the  amount  set  opposite  our  names,  pro- 
vided, nevertheless,  the  moneys  paid  by  us  shall 
be  expended  for  no  other  purpose  or  purposes  than 
the  maintenance  of  said  Mary  Baker  Glover  as 
teacher  or  instructor,  than  the  renting  of  a  suit- 
able hall  and  other  necessary  incidental  expenses, 
and  our  signatures  shall  be  a  full  and  sufficient 
guarantee  of  our  faithful  performance  of  this 
contract. 
(Signed) 

Elizabeth  M.  Newhall   .    .    .     $1.50 

Dan'l  H.  Spofford 2.00 

George  H.  Allen 2.00 

Dorcas  B.  Rawson 1.00 

Asa  T.  N.  Macdonald      ...         .50 

George  W.  Barry      2.00 

S.  P.  Bancroft .50 

Miranda  R.  Rice .50 

This  was  the  first  step  toward  a  Christian  Science 
church.  It  will  be  seen  from  the  amounts  pledged 
by  the  signers  of  the  resolutions  that  they  did  not 
have  veiy  much  to  contribute  and  the  whole  sum 
amounted  to  only  ten  dollars  per  week,  part  of 
which  was  to  go  for  the  necessary  expense  of  a 
hall.  But  the  meetings  begun  in  this  humble  way 
continued  as  long  as  Mrs.  Eddy  remained  in  Lynn. 
Her  student,  S.  P.  Bancroft,  conducted  the  singing, 
his  wife  playing  the  melodeon.  The  hall  was  one 
used  by  the  Good  Templars  and  was  rather  small. 
The  audiences  seldom  exceeded  twenty-five. 

Besides  teaching,  preaching,  and  writing,  Mrs. 
Glover  performed  many  healings.  She  healed 
George  Barry   of   consumption;    she   caused   Mrs. 


228  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Rice  to  have  a  painless  delivery  of  a  child.  These 
two  students  were  so  devoted  to  her  that  they  were 
continually  about  her  house,  rivaling  each  other  in 
services  to  their  teacher.  Barry  habitually  ad- 
dressed her  as  "Mother."  He  inscribed  to  her  the 
lines  of  poetry  he  wrote,  of  which  the  following  is 
an  example  of  his  state  of  mind,  if  not  of  any  par- 
ticular genius  for  verse  making : 

"  O,  mother  mine,  God  grant  I  ne'er  forget. 
Whatever  be  my  grief  or  what  my  joy, 
The  unmeasured,  unextinguishable  debt 
I  owe  to  thee,  but  find  my  sweet  employ 
Ever  through  thy  remaining  days  to  be 
To  thee  as  faithful  as  thou  wast  to  me." 

The  young  man  spaded  her  garden,  went  to 
market  for  her,  carried  messages  to  and  from  the 
printer  in  Boston,  and  in  many  ways  made  himself 
an  efiicient  aid.  Mrs.  Glover  taught  him  patiently 
for  he  was  not  educated.  She  corrected  his  penman- 
ship and  orthography,  and  after  he  had  shown  some 
advancement  allowed  him  to  do  some  copying  for 
her.  When  he  presently  fell  in  love,  he  brought  the 
young  woman  of  his  choice  to  see  Mrs.  Glover. 
She  received  her  not  only  as  a  friend  but  as  a  student, 
and  gave  her  sanction  to  the  marriage  which 
presently  followed.  It  was  understood  that  Mrs. 
Glover  felt  as  a  mother  toward  Barry,  and  such  a 
relationship  with  her  was  recognized  by  the  other 
students. 

Dorcas  Rawson  and  Barry  were  the  students  who 
arranged  for  buying  the  Broad  street  house.    When 


CONFLICT  OF  PERSONALITIES  229 

the  first  edition  of  *' Science  and  Health"  was  pub- 
lished they,  with  Elizabeth  Newhall,  undertook  to 
dispose  of  the  one  thousand  volumes,  making  short 
journeys  into  the  adjoining  towns  and  canvassing 
from  door  to  door  with  them,  talking  Christian 
Science  wherever  they  could  get  a  hearing,  and  fre- 
quently winning  disciples  who  later  came  to  Mrs. 
Glover  for  instruction,  George  Barry  considered 
himself  chief  agent  for  the  disposal  of  the  book.  He 
had  an  interest  in  its  sale,  for  he  and  Elizabeth 
Newhall  had  advanced  the  money  for  its  publica- 
tion. 

As  yet  everything  was  moving  harmoniously  in 
the  little  home.  But  the  advent  of  a  new  personality 
was  to  throw  the  band  of  workers  into  a  confusion 
of  jealousy.  The  new  figure  in  the  drama  of  the 
early  church  work  was  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy.  Mr. 
Eddy  was  sent  to  Mrs.  Glover  by  the  Godfreys  of 
Chelsea. 

Mrs.  Glover  had  instantly  healed  a  finger  on  Mrs. 
Godfrey's  right  hand  from  which  she  was  suffer- 
ing greatly.  Mrs.  Godfrey  had  broken  a  needle  in 
her  hand  and  further  aggravated  the  wound  by 
poisoning  it  with  colored  thread.  For  weeks  she 
had  carried  her  hand  in  a  sling,  refusing  to  allow  the 
finger  to  be  amputated  as  a  physician  advised.  Vis- 
iting her  relatives  who  were  Mrs.  Glover's  tenants, 
she  had  been  most  astonishingly  healed.  Retiring 
as  usual,  she  arose  with  the  finger  cured.  Her  as- 
tonishment and  gratitude  was  such  that  she  sent 
many  patients  to  Mrs.  Glover,  brought  her  own 
child  through  a  blinding  snowstorm  to  be  cured  of 


230  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

membranous  croup,  sent  a  workman  who  had 
fallen  from  the  roof  of  a  house  and  lost  the  use 
of  his  arm.  All  these  cases  were  cured  by  Mrs. 
Glover. 

Now  the  Godfreys  were  acquainted  with  Mr. 
Eddy.  They  remember  him  to-day  as  a  grave, 
sweet-tempered  man,  to  whom  children  were  de- 
voted. He  was  a  bachelor  living  in  East  Boston,  an 
agent  for  a  sewing-machine  concern.  He  was  not 
in  good  health  and  the  Godfreys,  recounting  to  him 
their  unusual  experiences,  impressed  upon  him  the 
idea  of  visiting  Mrs.  Glover. 

When  Mr.  Eddy  visited  Mary  Baker  she  not  only 
healed  him,  but  advised  him  to  enter  a  new  class 
she  was  forming.  She  read  his  character  and  read 
it  aright.  He  was  a  man  of  such  gentleness  and 
sweetness  that  persons  knowing  him  but  slightly 
were  often  led  to  think  him  devoid  of  the  true  force 
of  manliness.  He  was,  however,  so  those  who  knew 
him  best  declare,  possessed  of  the  staying  quality  of 
sterling  integrity.  Seldom  assertive,  preferring  to 
master  a  situation  by  patiently  studying  it  and  mov- 
ing conciliatingly  and  gently  among  the  forces  at 
play,  he  could,  when  occasion  demanded,  act  with 
a  masterfulness  that  commanded  instant  respect. 
Mrs.  Glover  placed  considerable  responsibility  in 
Mr.  Eddy's  hands  very  early  in  their  acquaintance 
and  as  soon  as  she  did  so  a  conflict  of  personalities 
began  which  shook  her  circle  from  circumference 
to  center. 

Daniel  Spofford  had  opened  an  office  in  Lynn 
directly  after  finishing  his  class  instruction.     His 


CONFLICT  OF  PERSONALITIES  231 

practise  had  been  quite  successful  and  had  had  two 
years  to  grow  into  a  flourishing  condition.  Mrs. 
Glover  had  been  revising  her  book  during  these  two 
years  and  was  aware  of  the  slow  and  unsatisfactory 
way  in  which  the  first  edition  was  being  gradually 
disposed  of.  She  sent  for  Spofford  and  laid  before 
him  the  needs  of  the  movement.  The  book  must  be 
sent  forth  to  do  the  work  it  was  written  to  do.  She 
needed  greater  business  ability  than  George  Barry 
possessed  to  accomplish  this.  A  new  edition  must 
be  watched  through  the  press,  and  ways  and  means 
of  circulation  thought  out.  She  asked  Daniel  Spof- 
ford to  undertake  this  work.  Spofford  assured  her 
of  his  willingness  but  referred  to  his  practise.  What 
should  he  do  with  that.^  Mrs.  Glover  told  him  to 
give  it  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Eddy. 

An  extraordinary  move  in  any  organization  causes 
instant  excitement  in  all  its  parts  unless  the  whole 
is  so  unified  that  it  will  act  in  perfect  harmony. 
George  Barry,  who  had  professed  such  profound  love 
and  intentions  of  devotion  toward  his  teacher,  now 
instantly  rebelled  when  acquainted  with  her  desire 
to  relieve  him  of  the  direction  of  her  publication. 
He  who  had  been  all  docility  and  gentleness,  while 
he  felt  himself  the  most  important  personage  in  the 
field,  now  went  into  a  paroxysm  of  rage  and  would 
not  come  near  the  Broad  street  house.  Spofford  was 
in  little  better  mood.  He  affected  to  accept  the 
situation  cheerfully,  but  constantly  hinted  that  he 
was  being  driven  out,  that  a  cloud  had  come  between 
him  and  his  teacher,  that  certain  students  were  try- 
ing to  compel  him  to  leave  her.     But,  he  asserted, 


232  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

nothing  should  compel  him  to  do  so.  They  might 
try  to  their  utmost,  but  he  would  stand  faithful  to 
his  post. 

The  talk  waged  back  and  forth  among  the  stud- 
ents. Barry  was  angry,  Spofford  was  offended,  the 
women  students  who  had  made  desultory  efforts  to 
sell  the  book  felt  themselves  criticized  in  the  new 
arrangement.  Some  of  the  patients  did  not  like  Mr. 
Eddy  as  well  as  they  had  Mr.  Spofford ;  some  liked 
him  better.  And  so  the  jealousies  waged  for  many 
months.  In  the  midst  of  the  struggle  of  personali- 
ties Mrs.  Glover  quietly  married  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy, 
and  the  war  temporarily  ceased.  The  marriage  took 
place  on  New  Year's  Day,  1877.  The  Unitarian 
clergyman,  the  Rev.  Samuel  B.  Stewart,  whose  ser- 
vices Mrs.  Glover  had  formerly  attended  with  Rich- 
ard Kennedy  and  Miss  Susie  Magoun,  performed 
the  ceremony. 

Sobered  by  this  unlooked-for  event,  the  students 
for  a  time  were  quieted.  Barry  who  all  the  time  had 
expected  to  be  solicited  to  return  became  ominously 
silent.  Mr.  Spofford,  who  received  back  his  practise 
when  Mrs.  Eddy  was  married,  attended  to  his  extra 
duties  with  some  address  but  with  mingled  feelings. 
He  had  entertained  other  ideas  which  this  event 
had  dashed  to  the  ground,  and  for  a  time  he  knew 
of  nothing  better  to  do  than  attend  to  his  work  with- 
out complaint.  Other  students  showed  their  pleasure 
in  what  they  regarded  as  a  romantic  and  humanizing 
incident  by  giving  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Eddy  a  reception 
about  three  weeks  after  the  wedding,  bringing  vari- 
ous bridal  gifts  to  her  house  and  spreading  a  supper 


CONFLICT  OF  PERSONALITIES  233 

there.  They  made  speeches  indicative  of  their  good 
feeling  and  generally  betrayed  a  desire  to  make  a 
rosy  ring  around  their  teacher  and  the  man  she  had 
chosen  to  honor. 

Mrs.  Eddy  replied  to  their  good-will  offering  with 
an  address  which  brought  them  out  of  the  somewhat 
hectic  sentimentalism  which  threatened  to  inundate 
her.  She  spoke  of  her  marriage  as  a  spiritual  union 
and  recalled  them  to  their  fidelity  to  truth  and  the 
noble  purposes  they  had  cherished.  She  then  took 
the  Bible  and  read  from  it,  expounding  certain  pas- 
sages until  she  brought  the  company  into  its  usual 
sense  of  the  spiritual  work  she  wished  her  students 
to  perform.  They  beheld  their  teacher  and  leader, 
the  same  Mary  Baker,  with  hands  as  ever  out- 
stretched to  them  with  the  spiritual  gift  to  be  trans- 
ferred through  them  to  the  whole  human  race  and  to 
the  age ;  with  growing  solemnity  they  saw  through  her 
eyes  the  far  horizon  and  the  vision  of  the  work  they 
had  to  do.  Mr.  Eddy  at  this  moment  became  simply 
one  of  them  again,  a  student  who  stood  a  little  closer, 
but  still  a  student.  He,  like  them,  must  carry  out 
her  directions  that  the  spreading  of  Christian  Science 
should  not  languish,  but  to  him  was  the  special  duty 
given  of  guarding  her  against  the  onslaughts  of  the 
envious  and  ambitious  who  pressed  too  close  with 
their  human  desires. 

If  for  a  time  Mrs.  Eddy's  influence  lulled  the 
storm,  it  suddenly  broke  forth  again  and  now  fol- 
lowed storm  upon  storm.  George  Barry  was  the 
first  to  move.  He  brought  suit  against  her  in  the 
spring  of  1877  to  recover  $2,700  which  he  said  was 


234  THE   LIFE   OF   MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

due  him  for  services  extending  over  five  years.  His 
bill  of  particulars  stated  his  services  very  minutely. 
He  mentions  copying  manuscripts,  searching  for  a 
printer,  moving  goods  from  the  tenement  on  South 
Common  street,  disposing  of  some  articles  at  auction 
and  storing  others,  clearing  up  rooms,  paying  rent 
for  same,  withdrawing  moneys  from  the  Boston  Sav- 
ings Bank,  aiding  in  buying  the  house  at  8  Broad 
street,  aiding  in  selecting  carpets  and  furniture,  help- 
ing to  move  and  putting  down  carpets,  working  in 
the  garden.  He  made  items  of  fifty  cents  for  fetch- 
ing up  a  pail  of  coal  from  the  cellar,  items  for  walk- 
ing out  with  her  in  the  evening  in  search  of  a  dwelling. 
There  was  nothing  that  he  did  not  mention  in  his 
bill  of  particulars,  even  to  a  pair  of  boots  which  he 
bought  for  himself  with  her  money.  As  for  the 
copying,  he  had  done  it  so  badly  that  his  work  was 
useless  to  her.  Mrs.  Eddy  had  taught  him,  healed 
him,  paid  many  of  his  debts,  guided  him  in  his  mar- 
riage, and  directed  his  practise  as  she  did  that  of 
many  of  her  students. 

When  the  suit  was  heard  in  court  Mrs.  Eddy  went 
on  the  stand  and  explained  her  relations  with  the 
young  man,  how  she  had  practically  adopted  him, 
and  what  her  intentions  toward  him  had  been.  Her 
attorney,  Charles  P.  Thompson,  argued:  "It  is  im- 
portant to  look  at  the  relations  of  the  parties  and  at 
what  their  understanding  was  at  the  time  of  render- 
ing and  receiving  services.  If  the  understanding 
was  that  of  an  exchange  of  services  without  any  com- 
pensation, it  cannot  be  revoked."  Barry  recovered 
$350  instead  of  $2,700  and  afterwards  repented  and 


CONFLICT  OF  PERSONALITIES  235 

made  a  tentative  effort  to  return  to  her  good-vvnll. 
But  whether  or  no  that  was  a  serious  intention  will 
be  presently  shown. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  next  troubles  were  with  Spofford. 
She  w^as  preparing  the  manuscript  for  her  second 
edition.  In  the  midst  of  this  labor  Mr.  Spofford 
began  to  evince  a  renewal  of  his  dissatisfied  frame 
of  mind.  He  balked  at  all  of  her  advice  and  con- 
tinually declared  that  the  book  could  not  be  financed. 
Wliile  striving  to  make  the  way  plain  for  him,  her 
business  agent,  and  continuing  her  literary  labors, 
her  doors  were  thronged  with  perplexed  students 
who  wished  her  help  in  healing  patients.  The  stud- 
ents pressed  upon  her  so  with  their  varying  needs  that 
she  was  finally  driven  to  leave  her  home  for  a  time 
with  her  husband  and  keep  her  w^hereabouts  un- 
known, for  they  interrupted  her  work  and  the  book 
lay  waiting. 

She  gave  Mr.  Spofford  a  Boston  address  and  from 
there  wrote  him  several  letters  urging  him  to  speak 
to  certain  of  the  students  and  patients  for  her. 
Among  them  were  two  young  w^omen  of  Ipswich, 
the  wife  of  the  mayor  of  Newburyport,  and  a  manu- 
facturer of  Boston,  all  of  whom  had  pressed  her  for 
attention  and  healing.  She  wished  them  to  be  in- 
structed in  the  necessity  of  doing  their  own  mental 
work  and  thus  to  cease  interfering  with  the  more 
important  work  which  lay  upon  her.  Concerning 
these  matters  she  wrote  him:  "If  the  students  still 
continue  to  think  of  me  and  to  call  on  me  I  shall  at 
last  defend  myself  and  this  will  be  to  cut  them  off 
from  me  utterly  in  a  spiritual  sense  by  a  bridge  they 


236  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

cannot  pass  over.  ...  I  will  let  you  hear  from  me 
as  soon  as  I  can  return  to  prosecute  my  work  on  the 
Book.  ...  I  am  going  far  away  and  shall  remain 
until  you  will  do  your  part  and  give  me  some  better 
prospect."  ^ 

And  again  she  wrote  him:  "If  you  conclude  not 
to  carry  the  work  forward  on  the  terms  named,  it 
will  have  to  go  out  of  edition  as  I  can  do  no  more 
for  it,  and  I  believe  this  hour  is  to  try  my  students 
who  think  they  have  the  cause  at  heart  and  see  if 
it  be  so.  .  .  .  The  conditions  I  have  named  to  you 
I  think  are  just.  .  .  .  Now,  dear  student,  you  can 
work  as  your  teacher  has  done  before  you,  unself- 
ishly, as  you  wish  to,  and  gain  the  reward  of  such 
labor.  Meantime,  you  can  be  fitting  yourself  for 
a  higher  plane  of  action  and  its  reward."  ^ 

Mr.  Spofford's  reply  to  this  earnest  solicitation 
that  he  should  apply  himself  to  pushing  the  book 
came  in  July  of  that  year.  He  closed  out  the  stock 
of  "Science  and  Health"  which  he  had  received 
from  George  Barry  and  Elizabeth  Newhall,  and 
paid  over  the  money  from  the  sale  of  these  books, 
something  over  $600,  to  these  two  students.  They 
had  supplied  the  capital  for  the  first  edition  in  con- 
sideration of  gratitude  to  their  teacher.  They  now 
received  all  the  profits  that  had  accrued,  as  Mrs. 
Eddy  had  no  agreement  with  them  for  a  royalty. 
There  was  a  loss  all  around  by  this  premature  act. 
Mr.  Spofford  claimed  $500  against  the  edition  for 
personal  expenses,  which  he  could  not  by  such  hasty 

'  From  letters  furnished  McClure's  Magazine. 
^  Ibid. 


CONFLICT  OF  PERSONALITIES  237 

and  ill-advised  methods  realize.  The  students 
themselves  lost  by  the  transaction.  The  publica- 
tion of  the  book  was  temporarily  interrupted  and 
the  author  left  without  means  to  finance  the  second 
edition  which  was  still  in  press.  When  the  second 
edition  finally  came  out  it  was  found  to  be  a  slim 
book,  labelled  Volume  II,  though  there  was  no 
Volume  I.  It  was  a  complete  failure ;  its  typographi- 
cal errors  were  legion. 

Now  it  is  not  necessary  to  inquire  rigidly  into  the 
mental  state  of  Daniel  Spoff  ord  at  that  time  to  under- 
stand what  had  happened.  He  complains  to-day 
that  Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  understand  the  situation ;  he 
says  that  she  was  a  woman  and  surrounded  by  many 
advisers,  and  would  suggest  that  her  life  was  in 
small  like  a  queen's  court  where  suspicion  and  jeal- 
ousies are  rife  and  that  one  could  not  act  for  her 
firmly  and  steadfastly  and  bring  about  satisfactory 
results.  Doubtless  he  had  some  business  trials, 
doubtless  there  were  many  difficulties  in  financing  a 
book  of  this  character,  and  doubtless  there  was  un- 
warrantable interference  from  the  various  students 
who  wanted  the  text-book,  wanted  to  see  it  circulated 
speedily  and  widely.  But  a  man  of  ability  should 
have  silenced  the  intruders,  should  have  worked 
patiently  and  purposefully,  and  should  not  have 
wound  up  so  important  a  business  as  had  been 
intrusted  to  him  by  rash  precipitation. 

Mrs.  Eddy  was  justly  indignant  at  his  gross  mis- 
management of  her  affairs  and  his  extraordinary 
method  of  accounting.  He  left  her  stranded  without 
the  means  to  forward  a  second  edition.    This  might 


238  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

have  been  remedied  had  he  withdrawn.  But  he  did 
not  withdraw.  He  called  on  her,  not  to  explain  his 
trials  and  the  disadvantages  under  which  he  labored, 
but  to  tell  her  that  he  intended  to  remove  from  her 
all  means  for  carrying  on  her  work,  "for,"  said  he, 
**you  have  proven  yourself  incapable  as  a  leader, 
and  I  propose  to  carry  on  this  work  myself  and 
alone." 

Thus  Spofford  did  not  go  quietly  and  leave  Mrs. 
Eddy  to  gather  up  the  strands  that  were  broken. 
He  began  to  practise  and  to  teach  in  opposition  to 
her  and  to  call  upon  her  students  with  the  object  of 
deflecting  them  from  her  to  himself  as  he  had 
threatened  he  would  do. 

How  did  Mrs.  Eddy  meet  these  trials  ?  It  has 
been  stated  that  she  authorized  and  inspired  at  her 
house  in  Broad  street  meetings  of  devoted  students 
who  concentrated  their  thoughts  upon  individuals, 
—  presumably  Kennedy,  Spoff ord,  and  Barry,  — 
that  a  formula  of  mental  suggestion  was  used  against 
them. 

Perhaps  the  charge  that  Mrs.  Eddy  so  instructed 
her  students  to  gather  in  a  body  and  work  mentally 
to  do  injury  to  others  may  be  considered  as  an  ex- 
ample illustrating  her  statement,  "As  of  old,  evil 
still  charges  the  spiritual  idea  with  error's  own  na- 
ture and  methods."  Christian  Scientists  who  have 
been  in  the  movement  a  quarter  of  a  century  state 
that  there  is  absolutely  nothing  hidden  or  occult  in 
the  teaching  of  Christian  Science  and  that  they  have 
never  known  of  a  concerted  effort  of  thought  being 
made  to  bring  about  any  result  against  an  indi- 


CONFLICT  OF  PERSONALITIES  239 

vidual.  There  is,  in  fact,  no  secret  doctrine.  But 
they  do  know  that  Mrs.  Eddy  has  steadfastly  from 
the  beginning  of  her  teaching  to  the  present  day  in- 
structed her  students  never  to  seek  to  injure  another 
mentally. 

Mrs.  Eddy  says  in  "Miscellaneous  Writings,"  "I 
have  no  skill  in  occultism;  and  I  could  not  if  I 
would,  and  would  not  if  I  could,  harm  any  one 
through  the  mental  method  of  Mind-healing,  or  in 
any  other  manner."  Indeed,  Mrs.  Eddy  would 
have  had  to  go  back  on  everything  she  had  ever 
taught  or  written  of  the  working  of  divine  love  in 
the  consciousness  of  the  individual  had  she  suggested 
that  destructive  thought  be  used  against  those  who 
were  opposing  her  work.  The  idea  is  utterly  in- 
harmonious with  the  fundamental  tenets  of  her 
faith. 

However,  it  is  not  possible  to  state  whether  that 
early  group  of  pioneer  students  did  or  did  not  meet 
to  concentrate  their  thoughts  against  individuals 
with  the  idea  of  destroying  their  harmful  influence. 
Certainly  they  did  not  have  Mrs.  Eddy's  inspiration 
for  such  an  endeavor,  and  in  doing  so  must  have  de- 
parted from  her  teachings.  But  Mrs.  Eddy  had 
propounded  not  only  the  doctrine  of  Divine  Mind 
governing  all  reality,  she  had  indicated  the  rival 
force  of  illusion  in  the  theory  of  mesmerism  or  ani- 
mal magnetism  and  in  the  second  edition  of  her 
book,  the  so-called  Volume  II,  she  had  further  in- 
dicated the  working  of  this  hypnotic  force.  She  had 
come  to  see  that  manipulation  is  not  the  only  method 
of  hypnotism,  but  that  the  mind  acts  independently 


240  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

of  matter  for  evil  as  well  as  for  good.  Now  the 
little  handful  of  struggling  neophytes  had  not  learned 
how  to  meet  this  evil  and  were  doubtless  more  or 
less  frightened  at  the  notion  of  it. 

Some  of  the  students  saw  in  the  dereliction  of 
Daniel  Spofford  the  operation  of  malicious  animal 
magnetism,^  and  became  much  alarmed.  Miss 
Lucretia  Brown  of  Ipswich  particularly  declared 
that  Mr.  Spofford  was  causing  her  to  suffer  a  re- 
lapse into  ill  health  by  calling  upon  her  and  sug- 
gesting that  she  was  not  in  health.  Miss  Dorcas 
Rawson,  who  was  one  of  the  earliest  students,  was 
Miss  Brown's  teacher  and  healer.     She  reported 

*  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism  is  a  term  used  in  Christian  Science,  and 
perhaps  it  may  be  proper  to  define  its  significance,  since  it  has  been  largely  mis- 
apprehended in  the  pubhc  press  of  late.  The  word  magnetism  was  first  apphed 
to  a  peculiar  attraction  of  iron  ore,  so  named  because  it  was  discovered  in  the 
city  of  Magnesia.  Later  the  word  animal  was  joined  to  it  to  define  electrical 
experiments  with  an  animal.  This  term,  animal  magnetism,  eventually  came 
to  include  the  peculiar  influence  one  person  was  able  to  exert  over  another  by 
physical  contact.  In  this  sense  animal  magnetism  is  similar,  if  not  identical, 
with  the  term  mesmerism,  referring  directly  to  the  experiments  of  Mesmer. 
The  more  modern  term,  hypnotism,  has  the  peculiar  significance  of  the  power 
of  mind  over  mind  without  the  necessity  of  actual  physical  contact.  .  .  . 
Through  Mrs.  Eddy's  teaching,  the  term  animal  magnetism  has  become  broad 
enough  to  include  any  and  all  action  of  the  human  mind,  applying  it  to  that 
peculiar  power,  influence,  or  force  which  is  possessed  by  the  creature  in  con- 
tradistinction to  the  Creator.  Since  Christian  Science  has  introduced  the  prop- 
osition that  God  is  the  only  real  Mind,  the  carnal  mind  in  all  its  varied  mani- 
festations is  naturally,  in  the  interest  of  self-preservation,  arrayed  against  it. 
Therefore,  every  wilful  phase  of  this  human  opposition  which  is  created  by  the 
introduction  of  Science  is  mahcious.  Hence  the  use  of  the  term  malicious 
animal  magnetism.  It  is  magnetism  because  it  refers  to  a  supposed  power 
independent  of  God;  malicious,  in  keeping  with  the  Scriptural  declaration, 
"The  Carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God."  Mrs.  Eddy  refers  to  it  as  the 
human  antipode  of  Divine  Science.  It  is  a  term  which  is  broad  enough  to 
include  all  that  is  opposed  to  God.  It  includes  every  phase  of  e\'il,  every 
phase  of  human  antagonism  to  truth.  —  From  an  interview  vnth  Alfred 
Farlow  in  Human  Life,  August,  1907.- 


CONFLICT  OF  PERSONALITIES  241 

Miss  Brown's  condition  to  Mrs.  Eddy  and  the  fact 
that  Daniel  Spofford  had  called  upon  Miss  Brown. 
Miss  Rawson  suggested  that  he  be  restrained  from 
malicious  interference  with  her  work.  Miss  Brown 
also  urged  it,  as  she  declared  she  suffered  much 
from  his  interference. 

Mrs.  Eddy  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  suit  at  law 
which  was  presently  brought  by  Miss  Brown.  She 
has  always  shown  herself  not  only  just,  but  admir- 
ably sane,  in  all  her  worldly  transactions.  So,  in- 
stead of  advising  this  suit,  she  advised  against  it, 
but  was  not  insistent  to  the  point  of  rupture.  She 
was  engaged  with  her  own  affairs  and  would  not  per- 
mit the  frightened  students  to  encroach  too  heavily 
upon  her  time.  The  suit  brought  by  themselves 
and  in  their  own  folly  bore  all  the  marks  of  haste  and 
fear.  The  bill  of  complaint  drawn  up  by  Miss 
Brown  reads: 

Humbly  complaining,  the  plaintiff,  Lucretia 
L.  S.  Brown  of  Ipswich,  in  said  County  of  Essex, 
showeth  unto  your  Honors,  that  Daniel  H.  Spofford, 
of  Newburyport,  in  said  County  of  Essex,  the  de- 
fendant in  the  above  entitled  action,  is  a  mesmerist 
and  practises  the  art  of  mesmerism  and  by  his  said 
art  and  the  power  of  his  mind  influences  and  con- 
trols the  minds  and  bodies  of  other  persons  and 
uses  his  said  power  and  art  for  the  purpose  of  in- 
juring the  persons  and  property  and  social  relations 
of  others  and  does  by  said  means  so  injure  them. 

And  the  plaintiff  further  showeth  that  the  said 
Daniel  H.  Spofford  has  at  divers  times  and  places 
since  the  year  1875  wrongfully  and  maliciously 
and  with  intent  to  injure  the  plaintiff,  caused  the 

16 


242  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

plaintiff  by  means  of  his  said  power  and  art  great 
suffering  of  body  and  mind  and  severe  spinal  pains 
and  neuralgia  and  a  temporary  suspension  of  mind 
and  still  continues  to  cause  the  plaintiff  the  same. 
And  the  plaintiff  has  reason  to  fear  and  does  fear 
that  he  will  continue  in  the  future  to  cause  the  same. 
And  the  plaintiff  says  that  said  injuries  are  great 
and  of  an  irreparable  nature  and  that  she  is  wholly 
unable  to  escape  from  the  control  and  influence  he 
so  exercises  upon  her  and  from  the  aforesaid  effects 
of  said  control  and  influence. 

The  students  thronged  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  house  be- 
fore the  suit  was  tried,  beseeching  her  to  join  with 
them,  to  at  least  attend  the  hearing  at  the  Supreme 
Judicial  Court  in  Salem.  She  at  last  yielded  to  the 
extent  of  accompanying  them  on  that  morning  in 
May,  1878.  A  new  student,  Edward  J.  Arens, 
argued  the  case.  Mrs.  Eddy  was  amazed  at  his 
arguments  so  contrary  were  they  in  their  purport 
to  her  teaching,  especially  the  argument  that  Miss 
Brown  had  no  power  to  withstand  the  injuries  she 
complained  of.  Nor  was  Mrs.  Eddy  at  all  sur- 
prised at  the  decision  of  the  judge  that  it  was  not  in 
the  power  of  the  court  to  control  Mr.  Spofford's 
mind.  "Most  certainly  it  was  not  in  the  power  of 
the  court,"  Mrs.  Eddy  declared  to  her  students. 
She  rebuked  them  severely,  pointing  out  that  the 
suit  was  but  an  exhibition  of  their  own  wilfulness 
in  attempting  to  protect  mind  and  health  otherwise 
than  as  she  had  taught  them.  She  returned  to  her 
home  to  insist  for  the  future  more  strenuously,  more 
decidedly,  on  her  doctrine  of  meeting  evil  by  resting 
in  the  confidence  of  Divine  Love. 


CONFLICT  OF  PERSONALITIES  243 

The  student  Arens,  who  argued  what  was  called 
at  the  time  the  "Ipswich  Witchcraft  case,"  had  been 
received  for  instruction  by  Mrs.  Eddy  in  the  fall  of 
1877.  He  was  a  cabinet-maker  of  Lynn,  an  ener- 
getic, ambitious  young  man,  and  when  he  came  into 
Christian  Science  he  found  Mrs.  Eddy's  affairs  in 
that  languishing  and  entangled  state  to  which  Daniel 
Spoiford  had  brought  them.  He  wished  to  show  his 
personal  force,  to  push  the  sale  of  the  book,  and  to 
realize  for  the  cause  of  the  book  and  the  young  so- 
ciety funds  that  would  put  life  into  its  circulation 
and  thus  permit  of  a  broader  scope  of  activity.  His 
efforts  were  more  vigorous  than  well-advised,  and 
two  years  later  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  thus  of  his  activity 
in  her  affairs : 

"In  the  interests  of  truth  we  ought  to  say  that 
never  a  lawsuit  has  entered  into  our  history  volun- 
tarily. We  have  suffered  great  losses  and  direct 
injustice  rather  than  go  to  law,  for  we  have  always 
considered  a  lawsuit  of  two  evils  the  greater.  About 
two  years  ago  the  persuasions  of  a  student  awakened 
our  convictions  that  we  might  be  doing  wrong  in 
permitting  students  to  break  their  obligations  with 
us.  .  .  .  The  student  who  argued  this  point  to  us  so 
convincingly  offered  to  take  the  notes  and  collect 
them,  without  any  participation  of  ours.  We  trusted 
him  with  the  whole  affair,  doing  only  what  he  told 
us,  for  we  were  utterly  ignorant  of  legal  proceedings. 
It  was  alleged  indirectly  in  the  Newburyport  Herald 
that  we  caused  a  bill  to  be  filed  in  the  Supreme 
Court  to  restrain  a  student  of  ours  from  practising 
mesmerism.     That  statement  was  utterly  false.     It 


244  THE   LIFE   OF   MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

was  a  student  who  did  that  contrary  to  our  advice 
and  judgment  and  we  have  the  affidavit  of  the  re- 
luctant plaintiff  certifying  to  this  fact."  ^ 

The  case  directly  referred  to  is  "the  Ipswich 
affair,"  and  the  plaintiff,  Miss  Lucretia  Brown. 
Other  cases  which  Arens  brought  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 
name  were  the  suits  against  Stanley  and  Tuttle,  re- 
ferred to  in  a  previous  chapter,  and  a  suit  against 
Richard  Kennedy  brought  in  the  municipal  court  of 
Suffolk  county,  Massachusetts,  in  February,  1878, 
to  collect  a  promissoiy  note  made  in  1870.  The 
suit  against  Stanley  and  Tuttle  resulted  unfavor- 
ably because  the  defendants  claimed  that  Mrs. 
Eddy  had  first  instructed  them  to  manipulate  the 
head,  and  later  instructed  them  to  treat  differently, 
without  touching  the  patient,  and  they  claimed  to 
have  been  confused  and  to  have  received  no  benefits. 
In  the  case  of  Kennedy,  judgment  was  awarded  in 
Mrs.  Eddy's  favor.  The  note  for  which  suit  was 
brought  read: 

In  consideration  of  two  years'  instruction  in 
healing  the  sick,  I  hereby  agree  to  pay  Mary  Baker 
Glover  one  thousand  dollars  in  quarterly  instal- 
ments of  fifty  dollars,  commencing  from  this  date, 
Februaiy,  1870. 

(Signed)         Richard  Kennedy. 

In  April  Arens  arranged  a  suit  against  Daniel 
Spofford  to  collect  from  him  a  royalty  on  his  prac- 
tise for  unpaid  tuition  fees.  This  suit  was  dismissed 
for  insufficient  sei'vice.     Barry's  suit  against  Mrs. 

'  "Science  and  Health,"  third  edition. 


CONFLICT  OF  PERSONALITIES  245 

Eddy  was  still  dragging  on  and  was  not  settled  until 
October  of  the  following  year.  Keeping  in  mind 
these  suits  at  law,  with  their  varying  results  for 
which  the  activity  of  Arens  was  responsible,  the 
reader  has  a  fairly  clear  idea  of  the  maze  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  affairs  in  the  spring  and  summer  of  1878. 
Arens  had  arrayed  against  her  in  a  definite  way  the 
minds  of  Kennedy  and  Spofford,  and  Barry  who 
knew  them  both  well  was  in  opposition  on  his  own 
account. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  George  Barry  wrote  the 
following  letter  to  Mrs.  Eddy  which,  considering 
events  about  to  befall,  may  illuminate  what  was  al- 
ways regarded  as  an  inscrutable  conspiracy.  The 
letter  shows  the  peculiar  nature  of  young  Barry  and 
also,  indirectly,  the  nature  of  others.    It  reads : 

It  is  evident  to  me  that  you  desire  Dr.  Kennedy 
to  leave  the  city,  and  I  think  also  it  would  be  for 
your  interest  to  accomplish  this  end.  The  relations 
between  he  and  I  are  probably  of  a  different  nature 
from  what  you  suppose,  as  I  owe  him  a  debt  on  the 
past,  which,  if  driving  him  from  Lynn  will  accom- 
plish, it  can  and  shall  be  done.  He  thinks  I  am 
your  greatest  enemy,  and  favor,  if  either,  his  side. 
Let  him  continue  to  think  so ;  it  will  do  me  no  harm. 
For  my  part  I  rather  a  person  would  come  out 
boldly  and  fearlessly  as  you  and  I  did  facing  each 
other,  than  to  sneak  like  a  snake  in  the  grass,  spit- 
ting his  poison  venom  into  them  he  would  slay.  I 
have  said  I  owe  Dr.  Kennedy  on  an  old  score,  and 
the  interview  I  had  with  him  last  night  has  in- 
creased that  debt,  so  that  I  am  now  determined,  if 
it  be  your  object  also,  as  two  heads  are  better  than 
one,  to  drive  him  from  Lynn.     Why  should  we  be 


246  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

enemies,  especially  if  we  have  one  great  object  in 
common?  Perhaps  we  can  be  united  on  this,  and 
the  result  may  be  that  this  city  will  finally  be  rid 
of  one  of  the  greatest  humbugs  that  ever  disgraced 
her  fair  face.  All  this  can  be  accomplished  but 
as  I  said  before,  it  is  necessary  to  be  very  cautious, 
and  not  let  the  fact  of  our  communicating  together 
be  known,  as  a  friend  in  the  enemy's  camp  is  an 
advantage  not  to  be  overlooked. 

This  thoroughly  detestable  letter  is  so  artless  in 
its  wickedness  as  to  need  no  comment.  It  was 
without  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  an  effort  to  inveigle 
Mrs.  Eddy  into  a  dishonorable  correspondence  with 
its  wretched  author.  Whether  or  not  it  was  a  part 
of  the  forthcoming  inscrutable  conspiracy  can  only 
be  conjectured.  Mrs.  Eddy's  reply  to  her  erstwhile 
student  was  very  brief:  "We  will  help  you  always 
to  do  right;  but  with  regard  to  your  proposition  to 
send  Dr.  Kennedy  out  of  Lynn  we  recommend  that 
you  leave  this  to  God;  his  sins  will  find  him 
out." 


CHAPTER    XVI 

A   STRANGE   CONSPIRACY 

DURING  the  summer  which  followed  the  law- 
suits arranged  and  prosecuted  by  the  student 
Arens,  affairs  at  Number  8  Broad  street  progressed 
more  quietly.  Both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Eddy  were  teach- 
ing metaphysics.  Mrs.  Eddy's  classes  were  held  at 
her  Lynn  home,  but  Mr.  Eddy  taught  in  East  Cam- 
bridge and  in  Boston,  as  well  as  in  Lynn.  The  dis- 
affected student  Spofford  was  seldom  seen  in  Lynn. 
He  had  opened  an  office  in  Boston  and  still  retained 
one  in  Newburyport. 

In  October,  1878,  the  Boston  Herald  printed  an 
article  stating  that  Daniel  Spofford  had  disappeared 
and  his  friends  were  greatly  alarmed  concerning 
him.  A  description  of  him  was  given  and  other 
papers  were  asked  to  copy  it.  A  few  days  later  the 
same  paper  stated  that  his  body  had  been  found  and 
was  lying  at  the  morgue.  On  the  twenty-ninth  of 
October  the  Herald  was  able  for  the  first  time  to 
print  a  fact  in  this  case,  relating  that  Asa  Gilbert 
Eddy  and  Edward  J.  Arens  were  under  arrest  for 
conspiring  to  murder  Daniel  Spofford. 

After  the  lapse  of  thirty  years  it  is  as  diflScult  to 
form  an  opinion  concerning  this  amazing  charge  as 
it  was  at  the  time  of  its  occurrence.  It  is  diflScult 
because  it  requires  one  to  follow  the  tangled  threads 


248  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

of  a  conspiracy,  a  conspiracy  so  well  wrought  as  at 
first  to  deceive  the  grand  jury  of  the  Commonwealth 
of  Massachusetts,  and,  as  was  afterward  found,  too 
intricate  to  yield  its  prime  mover  even  under  legal 
scrutiny,  and  the  indictment  against  Mr.  Eddy  and 
Mr.  Arens  was  quashed  by  the  District  Attorney, 
Oliver  Stevens.  It  may  be  well  to  state  at  once  that 
Mr.  Spofford  had  not  had  a  hair  of  his  head  harmed, 
and  lives  to-day,  still  rehearsing  the  strange  features 
of  this  strange  story  which,  without  explanation, 
would  throw  discredit  on  the  blameless  life  of  Mr. 
Eddy,  and  by  implication  on  Mrs.  Eddy. 

When  the  two  innocent  men  were  arrested  they 
were  held  in  three  thousand  dollars'  bail  for  examina- 
tion in  the  municipal  court  on  November  7  for  the 
crime  of  conspiring  to  kill  Daniel  Spofford.  The 
preliminary  hearing  was  held  before  Judge  May. 
Counsel  for  the  government  submitted  no  argument 
after  the  hearing  of  evidence,  but  called  the  attention 
of  the  Court  to  a  chain  of  circumstances  established 
which  he  believed  was  strong  enough  to  hold  the 
prisoners.  Judge  May,  after  deliberation,  declared 
it  his  opinion  that  the  case  was  a  very  anomalous 
one,  but  that  he  would  hold  the  defendants  to  appear 
before  the  Superior  Court  at  the  December  hearing, 
and  he  again  fixed  the  amount  of  bail,  which  would 
release  them  from  the  necessity  of  going  to  prison,  at 
three  thousand  dollars  each. 

The  case  was  called  before  the  Superior  Court  in 
December,  1878,  and  an  indictment  was  found  on 
two  counts.  The  first  read:  "That  Edward  J. 
Arens  and  Asa  G.  Eddy  of  Boston  aforesaid,  on  the 


A  STRANGE   CONSPIRACY  249 

28th  day  of  July,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thou- 
sand eight  hundred  and  seventy-eight,  in  Boston 
aforesaid,  with  force  and  arms,  being  persons  of  evil 
minds  and  dispositions,  did  then  and  there  unlaw- 
fully conspire,  combine,  and  agree  together  feloni- 
ously, wilfully,  and  of  their  malice  aforethought,  to 
procure,  hire,  incite  and  solicit  one  James  I.  Sar- 
geant,  for  a  certain  sum  of  money,  to  wit,  the  sum  of 
five  hundred  dollars,  to  be  paid  to  said  Sargeant  by 
them,  said  Arens  and  Eddy,  feloniously,  wilfully, 
and  of  his  said  Sargeant's  malice  aforethought,  in 
some  way  and  manner  and  by  some  means,  instru- 
ments and  weapons,  to  said  jurors  unknown,  one 
Daniel  H.  Spofford  to  kill  and  murder  against  the 
law,  peace  and  dignity  of  said  Commonwealth." 

The  second  count  charged  the  prisoners  with 
hiring  Sargeant  '*with  force  and  arms  in  and  upon 
one  Daniel  H.  Spofford  to  beat,  bruise,  wound,  and 
evil  treat  against  the  law,  peace,  dignity  of  said 
Commonwealth." 

The  Superior  Court  record  reads:  *'This  indict- 
ment was  found  and  returned  into  Court  by  the  grand 
jurors  at  the  last  December  term  when  the  said 
Arens  and  Eddy  were  severally  set  at  the  bar,  and 
having  the  said  indictment  read  to  them,  they  sev- 
erally said  thereof  that  they  were  not  guilty.  This 
indictment  was  thence  continued  to  the  present 
January  term,  and  now  the  District  Attorney,  Oliver 
Stevens,  Esquire,  says  he  will  prosecute  this  indict- 
ment no  further,  on  payment  of  costs,  which  are 
thereupon  paid.  And  the  said  Arens  and  Eddy  are 
thereupon  discharged,  January  31,  1879." 


250  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

This  monstrous  charge  was  thus  dismissed  with- 
out a  trial.  The  men  accused  were  made  to  appear 
too  insignificant  in  the  world's  affairs  to  warrant  a 
full  and  clear  exoneration.  They  were  let  go  like 
guilty  culprits  who  just  escaped  the  sting  of  the  law's 
lash.  Their  case  is  not  singular.  It  is  to  be  deplored 
that  the  law  does  not  always  make  the  vindication 
of  a  man,  entangled  in  its  meshes  through  the  un- 
warranted suspicions  of  his  enemies  or  neighbors, 
so  clear  and  emphatic  that  he  may  stand  innocent  in 
reputation,  unblemished,  and  without  reproach, 
even  as  he  did  before  the  law  laid  hands  upon  him. 

What  would  have  happened  had  the  process  of  law 
taken  its  full  course  ?  Doubtless  the  guilty  con- 
spirator would  have  been  made  to  appear.  To 
fasten  a  crime  upon  an  innocent  man  is  in  itself  a 
hideous  crime,  and  by  the  very  nolle  prosse  of  this 
indictment  a  conspiracy  was  shown  to  exist  which, 
had  the  district  attorney  of  that  day  felt  his  whole 
duty,  he  would  have  disentangled  by  thoroughly 
sifting  the  evidence.  He  had  a  crime  to  fit  to  an 
individual.  He  should  have  gathered  all  the 
known  details,  examined  every  circumstance,  how- 
ever slight.  He  should  not  have  lost  a  shred  or 
tatter.  For  his  work  was  to  piece  together  a  fabric 
of  evidence  to  match  a  fabric  of  guilt.  The  gar- 
ment would  have  fit  but  one  man  and  that  man  the 
criminal. 

In  speaking  of  a  district  attorney's  obligations  to 
the  people,  James  W.  Osborne,  a  distinguished 
attorney  of  New  York  City,  and  a  former  assistant 
in  the  district  attorney's  oflSce,  says : 


A  STRANGE  CONSPIRACY  251 

It  is  as  much  his  duty  to  take  care  of  the  rights  of 
one  of  the  people  as  the  rights  of  all.  .  .  .  Resting 
always  on  the  evidence,  his  feet  are  fixed  in  the  way 
they  should  go.  ...  A  human  being  moves  in  cer- 
tain well-defined  circles,  which,  joined  together, 
make  up  a  complete  history  of  the  man's  life.  When 
you  have  a  section  of  the  arc  of  any  man's  history, 
you  are  pretty  well  able  to  follow  it  to  its  completion. 
It  is  like  the  key  to  a  puzzle  around  which  the  broken 
pieces  naturally  group  themselves.  There  is  the 
social  life,  the  religious  life,  the  business  life,  —  will 
these  sections  of  the  arc  fit  together  ?  Can  you  com- 
plete the  ring  ?  When  you  have  them  all  they  fall 
into  place  naturally ;  all  phases  join  by  an  imper- 
ceptible cleavage ;  the  circle  is  completed  by  those 
who,  with  hands  joined,  encompass  the  life.  You 
see  the  complex  whole.  Here  is  the  individual. 
You  know  the  mainspring  of  his  thoughts,  his  de- 
sires, his  habits,  his  acts.  Taken  together  you  have 
his  character;  you  have  the  man. 

T  am  not  obliged  to  give  you  the  motive  for  a 
crime  to  prove  it  to  have  been  perpetrated.  .  .  . 
The  motives  of  the  human  heart  are  often  beyond 
comprehension.  But  it  is  the  most  natural  thing  in 
the  world  to  ask,  "  Who  could  have  desired  to  do 
this  deed  ?  "  Therefore  a  motive  is  a  part  of  the  evi- 
dence, and  when  you  can  prove  a  motive,  it  becomes 
of  the  greatest  importance.  It  excludes  other  possi- 
ble agents,  all  things  being  equal,  and  becomes  like 
a  finger  pointing  unswervingly  and  declaring  to  the 
shrinking  and  guilty  person,  "  Thou  art  the  man  !" 

As  the  district  attorney  of  that  day  did  not  see  fit 
to  so  handle  his  evidence,  no  unswerving  finger  ever 
pointed  out  the  guilty  person.  It  is  therefore  not 
possible  to  make  any  direct  accusation  at  this  late 
day  either  by  surmise  or  inference,  but  that  the  reader 


252  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

may  form  his  own  opinion  of  the  nature  of  the  entan- 
glement it  is  only  necessary  to  tell  the  main  facts  of 
the  story. 

Mr.  Spofford  did  disappear  from  Boston  in  Oc- 
tober, 1878,  and  was  absent  from  his  office  two  weeks. 
But  he  disappeared  of  his  own  free  will  and  passed 
the  fortnight  in  the  home  of  the  man  who  claimed  to 
have  been  hired  to  kill  him.  Mr.  Spofford  told  his 
story  in  court.  He  said  that  a  man,  introducing 
himself  as  James  Sargeant  and  describing  himself  as 
a  saloon-keeper,  had  come  to  him  in  the  early  part 
of  the  month  at  his  office,  297  Tremont  street, 
Boston.  This  man  first  asked  him  if  he  knew  two 
men  named  Miller  and  Libbey.  Being  answered  in 
the  negative,  he  said,  "Well,  they  know  you  and  they 
want  to  get  you  put  out  of  the  way." 

Then  he  related  that  these  two  men  had  employed 
him  to  make  away  with  Spofford.  The  plan  was  to 
get  Spofford  to  take  a  drive  on  a  lonely  road,  and  in 
some  remote  spot  to  beat  him  over  the  head  and  kill 
him,  then  to  entangle  his  body  in  the  reins  and  cause 
the  horse  to  run  away.  Having  unfolded  this  mar- 
velous plot,  Sargeant  acknowledged  that  he  was  to 
get  $500  for  his  services.  He  told  him  that  he  had 
already  received  $75,  and  meant  to  try  to  get  the 
rest.  But  Sargeant  declared  he  had  no  desire  to  risk 
his  own  life  in  such  a  business,  although  apparently 
suffering  no  qualms  from  any  moral  scruple.  He 
further  stated  that  he  had  already  been  to  a  state 
detective,  HoUis  C.  Pinkham,  and  asked  him  to 
watch  the  case. 

Mr.   Spofford  said  that  he  himself  immediately 


A  STRANGE   CONSPIRACY  253 

went  to  this  state  detective,  and  found  that  Pinkham 
did  know  of  the  matter,  but  apparently  was  so  Uttle 
concerned  that  he  had  not  even  thought  it  necessary 
to  warn  Spofford.  In  fact,  the  state  detective  ex- 
pressed himself  of  the  opinion  that  it  was  a  trumped- 
up  story  sold  by  Sargeant  to  ingratiate  himself  with 
the  police  department,  for  this  man,  the  detective  told 
Spofford,  was  an  ex-convict  with  a  bad  criminal 
record. 

According  to  his  own  story,  Mr.  Spofford  did  noth- 
ing further  until  Sargeant  came  again  to  call  upon 
him,  and  when  he  again  beheld  the  square-set, 
brutal-featured  man  in  his  office  he  was  greatly 
alarmed.  Sargeant  had  come  to  tell  him  that  the 
men.  Miller  and  Libbey,  were  pressing  him  to  com- 
plete his  work;  that  he  had  put  them  off,  saying 
their  man  was  already  dead;  but  they  had  sent  an 
agent  to  his  office  and  now  accused  Sargeant  of 
playing  false  with  them. 

Spofford  conferred  again  with  the  state  detective 
and  on  that  official's  advice  disappeared.  He  chose 
a  strange  place  to  conceal  himself.  Mr.  Spofford 
actually  took  the  drive  on  the  lonely  road  with  the 
ex-convict  and  went  with  him  to  his  house  in  Cam- 
bridgeport.  Sargeant  did  not  even  ask  him  to  pay 
for  the  hired  horse  and  buggy.  Spofford  remained 
in  the  home  of  the  saloon-keeper  of  Sudbury  street 
for  two  weeks,  reading  the  papers  in  which  he  was 
advertised  as  lost  and  later  as  lying  in  the  morgue, 
never  venturing  to  come  forth  and  disclose  his  w^here- 
abouts  to  his  anxious  friends.  This  strange  pro- 
ceeding would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  depraved 


254  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

man,  Sargeant,  had  been  employed  by  some  one  as 
an  actor  in  a  farce  rather  than  a  tragedy. 

At  the  preliminary  hearing  in  the  municipal  court 
of  Boston  there  was  a  strange  assemblage  of  wit- 
nesses brought  to  swear  against  the  liberty  of  the 
teacher  of  moral  science,  Mr.  Eddy,  and  his  student, 
Edward  Arens.  The  two  men  who  had  been  sum- 
marily arrested  and  haled  to  court  were  astounded 
to  behold  Daniel  Spofford  in  such  a  company.  Be- 
sides Sargeant,  the  saloon-keeper  of  Sudbury  street, 
there  were  his  sister,  who  kept  a  house  of  ill-fame  at 
7  Bowker  street,  and  several  women  inmates  of  this 
house;  also  George  Collier,  Sargeant's  accomplice, 
who  was  under  bonds  awaiting  trial  on  some  charge 
of  evil  doings  of  his  own ;  Jessie  MacDonald,  a  dis- 
charged servant  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  household;  and 
the  detectives  employed  on  the  case,  HoUis  C.  Pink- 
ham  and  Chase  Philbrick,  were  of  the  company. 

Sargeant,  with  bold  effrontery,  professed  to  iden- 
tify Mr.  Eddy  and  Edward  Arens  as  "Miller  and 
Libbey."  He  then  told  a  long  and  vivid  story  of  his 
meetings  with  them,  —  how  they  had  come  into  his 
saloon  one  morning  and  told  his  fortune  and  then, 
getting  into  confidential  conversation,  had  asked 
him  if  he  knew  any  one  who  could  be  hired  to  put  a 
man  out  of  the  way ;  how  he  had  said  that  he  was 
ready  himself  for  any  such  job,  provided  there  was 
money  in  it ;  and  how  by  arrangement  he  afterward 
met  Mr.  Eddy  and  Mr.  Arens  on  the  railroad  track 
in  East  Cambridge  on  the  seventeenth  of  August  at 
five-thirty  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  There,  he  de- 
clared, being  somewhat  alarmed  for  himself,  he  had 


A  STRANGE  CONSPIRACY  255 

had  his  friend  Collier  conceal  himself  in  a  freight 
car  to  hear  the  details  of  the  wicked  conspiracy,  and 
he  stated  how  he  had  also  provided  himself  with  a 
revolver  in  case  these  desperate  characters  should 
attack  him. 

The  presiding  judge  must  have  wondered  at  this 
on  studying  the  calm,  sweet  eyes  of  Mr.  Eddy,  the 
astounded  and  fearless  gaze  of  Mr.  Arens,  and  then 
the  shifty,  cruel  eyes  of  Sargeant.  But  his  perplexity 
must  have  increased  on  observing  the  guileless  ex- 
pression of  Spofford.  Collier  testified  to  the  truth  of 
all  Sargeant  had  said;  the  women  witnesses  from 
the  Bowker  street  house  declared  that  Sargeant  had 
come  there  and  left  with  his  sister  the  $75  he  had 
received  for  the  murder;  the  detective,  Pinkham, 
stated  that  he  had  listened  to  Sargeant's  and  Spof- 
ford's  stories,  that  he  had  seen  Sargeant  talking  to 
Arens  on  Boston  Common,  and  that  he  had  also  seen 
Sargeant  approach  Mr.  Eddy's  house  and  be  refused 
admission.  The  testimony  of  the  servant  girl, 
Jessie  MacDonald,  was  that  she  had  heard  Mr.  Eddy 
say  that  Spofford  kept  Mrs.  Eddy  in  agony  and  he 
would  be  glad  if  Spofford  were  out  of  the  way ;  also 
she  had  heard  Mrs.  Eddy  read  a  chapter  from  the 
Bible  which  says  that  all  wicked  people  should  be 
destroyed. 

Russell  H.  Conwell  was  the  attorney  employed  by 
Mrs.  Eddy  to  conduct  the  defense  of  her  husband 
and  her  student.  The  able  lawyer  had  prepared  a 
thorough  analysis  of  the  apparent  facts,  but  as  the 
case  never  came  to  trial,  the  defendants  had  no  hear- 
ing.    Mrs.  Eddy,  however,  did  not  rest  after  the 


256  THE   LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

peremptory  dismissal  of  the  case,  but  remained  active 
in  the  defense  of  her  husband's  honor,  until  every 
charge  was  privately  examined  and  affidavits  secured 
covering  every  point.  In  these  affidavits  she  was 
singularly  fortunate  in  receiving  the  confession  of 
the  accomplice  Collier  which  promised  to  clear  up  the 
entire  matter  had  the  nolle  prosse  not  been  entered. 
Shortly  after  the  police  court  hearing,  this  man  wrote 
the  following  badly  spelled  letter  now  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 
possession : 

To  Dr.  Asa  G.  Eddy  and  E.  J.  Arens,  — Feel- 
ing that  you  have  been  greatly  ingured  by  faulse 
charges  and  knowing  thair  is  no  truth  in  my  state- 
ments that  you  attempted  to  hire  Sargeant  to  kill 
Daniel  Spofford,  and  wishing  to  retract  as  far  as 
possible  all  things  I  have  sed  to  your  ingury,  I  now 
say  that  thair  is  no  truth  whatever  in  the  statement 
that  I  saw  you  meet  Sargeant  at  East  Cambridge 
or  any  other  place  and  pay  or  offer  to  pay  him  any 
money;  that  I  never  herd  a  conversation  between 
you  and  Sargeant  as  testified  to  by  me.  Whether 
Daniel  Spofford  has  anything  to  do  with  Sargeant 
I  do  not  know.  All  I  know  is  that  the  story  I  told 
on  the  stand  is  holy  faulse  and  was  got  up  by 
Sargeant. 

George  A.  Collier. 

This  letter  led  Mrs.  Eddy  to  inquire  out  the  man 
Collier  and  persuade  him  to  make  an  affidavit  before 
a  justice  in  Taunton,  December  17,  1878.  His 
sworn  statement  is  as  follows : 

I,  George  A.  Collier,  do  on  oath  depose  and  say 
of  my  own  free  will,  and  in  order  to  expose  the  man 
who  has  tried  to  injure  Dr.  Asa  G.  Eddy  and  Ed- 


A  STRANGE  CONSPIRACY  257 

ward  J.  Arens,  that  Sargeant  did  induce  me  by 
great  persuasion  to  go  with  him  to  East  Cambridge 
from  Boston,  on  or  about  the  7th  day  of  November 
last,  the  day  of  the  hearing  in  the  municipal  court 
of  Boston  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Asa  G.  Eddy  and  E. 
J.  Arens  for  attempting  to  hire  said  Sargeant  to 
kill  one  Daniel  Spofford,  and  that  he  showed  me 
the  place  and  the  cars  that  he  was  going  to  swear  to, 
and  told  me  what  to  say  in  court,  and  made  me  re- 
peat the  story  until  I  knew  it  well,  so  that  I  could 
tell  the  same  story  that  he  would,  and  there  was 
not  one  word  of  truth  in  it  all.  I  never  heard  a  con- 
versation in  East  Cambridge  between  said  Eddy 
and  Arens  and  Sargeant,  or  saw  them  pay  or  offer 
to  pay  Sargeant  any  money. 

(Signed)  Geo.  A.  Collier. 

The  other  affidavits  Mrs.  Eddy  secured  were 
statements  as  to  Mr.  Eddy's  whereabouts  on  the  day 
and  at  the  hour  when  the  ex-convict  Sargeant  de- 
clared he  was  conferring  with  him  and  giving  him 
money  on  the  railroad  tracks.  The  statements 
made  before  justices  and  sworn  to  in  all  cases  were 
that  Mr.  Eddy  was  teaching  a  class  in  metaphysics 
at  the  home  of  David  Grey,  43  Clifford  street,  Boston 
Highlands,  from  two-thirty  o'clock  until  five-forty- 
five  o'clock.  The  ride  in  the  horse  cars  of  those  days 
to  East  Cambridge  from  this  address  would  have 
consumed  an  hour.  Mr.  Eddy,  however,  reached  his 
home  in  Lynn  about  seven-fifteen,  p.  m.,  having 
gone  from  Boston  Highlands  to  the  Eastern  depot 
and  returned  to  his  home  on  the  six-thirty  o'clock 
train.  It  took  him  three  quarters  of  an  hour  to 
reach  the  Eastern  depot  from  his  class  in  Boston 

17 


258  THE   LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Highlands.  That  he  arrived  home  at  the  hour  stated 
does  not  rest  on  Mrs.  Eddy's  statement  alone  but  is 
attested  by  Miranda  R.  Rice  under  oath,  who  was 
at  8  Broad  street  with  Mrs.  Eddy,  waiting  to  hear 
particulars  from  Mr.  Eddy  of  his  new  class. 

As  to  the  detective's  testimony  that  he  had  seen 
Sargeant  at  Mr.  Eddy's  door,  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote  at 
the  time: 

The  only  time  this  man  Sargeant  came  to  our 
threshold,  to  our  knowledge,  was  the  day  the  de- 
tective came  to  arrest  Mr.  Eddy ;  he  preceded  the 
detective  a  few  minutes  and  had  just  been  ordered 
from  the  door  by  Mr.  Eddy  because  of  his  imperti- 
nent remarks,  when  the  detective  who  had  him  in 
attendance  rang  at  the  front  door  and  himself  ad- 
mitted Sargeant  into  the  house. 

Though  the  state  removed  the  detective,  and  Sar- 
geant and  Collier  subsequently  went  to  jail  on  other 
charges,  this  case,  which  was  built  up  on  perjuries 
and  which  collapsed  without  a  hearing,  evidently  had 
great  villainy  in  it  and  it  should  have  been  made  to 
appear.  Mrs.  Eddy  never  held  Daniel  Spofford 
directly  responsible  for  involving  her  husband  in  the 
wicked  conspiracy  and  causing  him  to  appear  at  the 
bar  of  justice  in  the  company  of  thieves  and  women 
of  ill-repute.  At  most  she  believed  him  blindly  ac- 
quiescent in  a  design  which  it  was  never  in  his  heart 
to  originate.  But  she  did  point  out,  without  naming, 
one  who  had  motive  and  character  for  the  instiga- 
tion of  the  dastardly  intrigue. 


CHAPTER    XVII 

ORGANIZATION  OF  CHURCH  AND  COLLEGE 

THE  development  of  machinations  usually  has 
the  result  of  clearing  the  atmosphere.  The 
hostile  plot  related  in  the  previous  chapter  operated 
in  this  manner.  Its  workings  were  like  a  chemical 
precipitation.  Mrs.  Eddy's  spiritual  genius  was 
resisting  the  encroachments  of  the  little  group 
around  her  and  preparing  to  deal  with  the  larger 
needs  of  a  great  spiritual  movement. 

She  foresaw  the  future  prophetically,  and  that  the 
hour  had  struck  for  a  new  movement  in  the  history 
of  human  rationalism.  In  less  than  twenty-five 
years  the  century  would  close,  and  in  the  opening  of 
the  twentieth  century  a  new  era  of  mental  life 
awaited  humanity.  Mrs.  Eddy  realized  this;  she 
desired  to  prepare  for  it,  to  have  in  readiness  proc- 
esses of  amelioration  for  the  miseries  of  an  age  more 
or  less  in  the  bondage  of  fear,  an  operative  organiza- 
tion by  which  humanity  might  lay  hold  of  the  new 
hope  which  should  thrill  it.  Christian  Science  must 
go  forward,  it  must  be  presented  to  the  world  beyond 
this  little  city  of  Lynn,  it  must  be  organized. 

To  trace  ir  any  great  movement,  as  Lecky  the 
historian  of  rationalism  has  pointed  out,  the  part 
which  belongs  to  the  individual  and  the  part  which 
belongs  to  general  causes  is  an  extremely  delicate 


260  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

task.  Mrs.  Eddy  had  already  made  an  amazing 
gift  to  her  time  which  might  well  be  deemed  a 
sufficient  work  for  any  one  individual  to  have  per- 
fected. In  her  treatise,  "Science  and  Health,"  she 
had  given  to  the  world  a  new  conception  of  the 
nature  of  the  Supreme  Being  and  His  habitual  gov- 
ernment of  the  universe.  But  having  received  a 
spiritual  revelation,  and  having  formulated  this 
revelation  into  a  treatise,  Mrs.  Eddy  now  appre- 
hended that  there  existed  a  socially  diffused  sense 
throughout  the  world  that  a  new  age  of  reasoning 
was  to  appear  with  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury. In  apprehending  this  she  realized  a  fresh 
work  which  was  laid  upon  her,  the  work  of  bringing 
into  the  full  glare  of  the  world's  thought  a  spiritual- 
ized realization  of  the  Christain  faith. 

What  then  were  the  tasks  of  the  hour  ?  An  effec- 
tive church  organization  was  the  crying  need. 
After  that  Mrs.  Eddy  foresaw  the  necessity  of 
establishing  a  college  of  instruction  which  would 
serve  as  a  strong  center  of  propaganda.  Her  book 
must  have  a  third  edition  and  this  edition  must  be 
effectively  circulated.  Teachers  and  practitioners 
must  be  sent  forth.  It  was  a  great  work  which  un- 
folded itself  in  her  mind  in  the  very  face  of  the  con- 
spiracy to  dishonor  her  in  Lynn,  directed  at  her 
through  the  persons  of  her  husband  and  student. 

During  the  summer  of  1878  Mrs.  Eddy  had  ven- 
tured to  carry  her  work  into  Boston.  She  first  gave 
lectures  on  Sunday  afternoons  in  the  Shawmut 
Avenue  Baptist  church,  and  later  lectured  in  the 
Parker    Fraternity    building    on    Appleton    street. 


ORGANIZATION  OF  CHURCH  AND  COLLEGE    261 

This  latter  place  was  a  hall  for  public  meetings 
which  seated  from  three  hundred  to  four  hundred 
persons.  At  first  her  lectures  drew  but  a  few  people, 
but  veiy  shortly  the  audiences  grew  larger  and  she 
was  soon  able  to  fill  the  hall. 

The  Boston  audiences  were  a  revelation  to  Mrs. 
Eddy.  The  listeners  attracted  to  the  new  doctrine 
were  distinctly  of  a  cultivated  world.  While  her 
long  labors  in  Lynn  had  unfolded  her  ow^n  powders, 
they  had  attracted  to  her  only  disciples  whose 
intellectual  limitations  caused  them  to  be  more  or 
less  disappointing.  They  had  been  able  to  follow 
her  only  a  certain  distance  in  philosophic  specula- 
tion, whereupon  a  reaction  of  some  sort  of  stubborn- 
ness would  ensue,  a  stubbornness  impossible  to  cope 
with.  In  Boston  a  new  quality  of  mind  responded  to 
her.  Those  first  Boston  audiences  revealed  to  her 
that  the  foundation  of  her  church  was  to  be  laid  in 
the  city  of  liberal  culture. 

Though  Lynn  was  stubborn,  the  founder  of 
Christian  Science  was  not  yet  done  with  her  efforts 
there.  From  that  base  her  future  activity  was  to  be 
projected.  The  last  two  years  of  her  residence  in 
Lynn  were  not  without  the  compensation  of  blessed- 
ness and  fruition.  A  few  students  who  remained 
loyal  to  the  work  were  taught  in  Broad  street,  and 
when  she  went  forth  they  followed  her  to  Boston  and 
became  her  aids.  She  could  not  personally  do 
everything  that  lay  before  her;  she  must  direct 
them  to  tasks  by  the  faithful  performance  of  which 
the  struggles  of  the  early  church  might  have  been 
greatly  minimized. 


262  THE   LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Eddy  lived  a  tranquil  domestic 
existence.  Their  union  was  based  on  affection  and 
mutual  esteem.  Their  housekeeping  was  ideally 
simple  and  harmonious.  Perfect  orderliness,  ex- 
quisite cleanliness,  and  gentle  social  courtesy  were 
Mrs.  Eddy's  marked  characteristics,  while  calm, 
upright,  steadfast,  a  continual  support  and  protec- 
tion to  his  wife,  Mr.  Eddy  has  been  likened  to  the 
late  President  McKinley  in  his  individual  traits. 

A  vivid  idea  of  the  interior  of  that  home  may  be 
gained,  which  is  pleasing  to  remember  when  one  is 
tempted  to  think  of  it  only  as  a  storm-buffeted 
center,  its  inmates  scandalized,  ridiculed,  and  out- 
raged by  hirelings  and  plotters  determined  to  mo- 
lest its  peace.  The  exterior  of  the  little  house  with 
its  balconied  portico,  its  flowers  and  shade  trees  has 
already  been  described.  The  first-floor  rooms,  so 
long  occupied  for  classes  and  lectures,  were  now  con- 
verted into  a  charming  little  parlor  and  study. 
Mrs.  Eddy  received  her  callers  in  the  first  room  and 
did  her  literary  work  in  the  second. 

The  walls  of  the  reception-room  were  finished  in 
plain  gray  paper  with  gold  cornices.  The  windows 
were  hung  with  white  lace  draperies,  looped  back 
over  high  gilt  arms.  A  crimson  carpet  covered  the 
floor  and  the  furniture  was  of  black  walnut.  The 
tables  always  held  vases  of  flowers,  for  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  plants  in  summer 
and  winter,  and  her  success  with  them  was  an  evi- 
dence of  her  continual  love  of  the  beautiful.  It  is 
impossible  to  impart  in  such  meager  details  the  ver- 
itable charm  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  home,  a  charm  which 


ORGANIZATION  OF  CHURCH  AND  COLLEGE    263 

has  existed  in  every  home  she  has  made ;  but  those 
who  have  described  the  room  speak  of  it  as  a  place 
where  one  breathed  the  atmosphere  of  graciousness 
expressed  in  rare  simphcity. 

In  this  room  Mrs.  Clara  Choate  was  received  by 
Mrs.  Eddy  in  January,  1878.  She  was  one  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  devoted  students  during  that  troublous 
time,  and  her  description  of  the  home  life  shows 
that  Mrs.  Eddy  was  not  overwhelmed  by  her  diffi- 
culties, but  calm  and  resolute.  She  also  tells  of  a 
certain  buoyancy  and  gaiety  which  at  times  char- 
acterized Mrs.  Eddy,  a  gaiety  which  caused  her  to 
rally  her  students  to  cheerfulness  and  mirth,  as  she 
later  rallied  the  lawyers  and  journalists  who  as- 
sembled with  awe-struck  countenances  to  catechize 
her  on  the  rationality  of  her  mind. 

Mrs.  Choate,  whose  husband  is  a  member  of  the 
family  which  has  given  so  many  distinguished  pub- 
licists to  the  American  nation,  and  who  is  herself 
related  to  the  Blaines,  was  an  early  reader  of 
"Science  and  Health."  She  secured  a  copy  of  the 
first  edition  and  read  it  with  wonder  and  delight, 
but  she  did  not  immediately  become  a  Christian 
Scientist.  Having  sent  from  her  home  in  Salem  for 
a  practitioner  and  having  been  greatly  benefited  in 
health,  she  determined  to  meet  the  author  of  the 
book  and  study  its  doctrine  at  first  hand.  She  ac- 
cordingly came  to  Lynn.  When  she  was  shown 
into  the  little  gray-walled  parlor,  she  looked  about 
in  some  w^onderment.  Expecting  to  find  austerity, 
she  was  surprised  to  behold  harmony,  beauty,  and 
sunshine.     Yet  this  presently  appeared  the  natural 


264  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

environment  for  the  religion  of  love.  Her  meeting 
with  Mrs.  Eddy  was  typical  of  many  such  meetings. 
She  describes  it  thus: 

When  the  double  doors  leading  into  the  back 
parlor  were  at  last  opened  and  I  saw  her  standing 
there,  I  was  seized  with  a  sense  of  great  gladness 
which  seemed  to  be  imparted  by  her  radiant  ex- 
pression. Mrs.  Eddy  instantly  healed  me  of  every 
ill  that  had  claimed  me.  I  cannot  describe  the  ex- 
hilaration that  rushed  through  my  whole  being. 
I  was  uplifted  and  felt  a  sense  of  buoyancy  unspeak- 
able. It  was  as  though  a  consciousness  of  purity 
pervaded  Mrs.  Eddy  and  from  her  imparted  itself 
to  me,  whereupon  I  felt  as  if  treading  on  air  to  the 
rhythmic  flow  of  music. 

Mrs.  Eddy  was  over  fifty  years  old,  but  Mrs. 
Choate  describes  her  as  a  graceful  figure  in  a  violet- 
colored  house-gown  finished  with  lace  at  the  throat 
and  wrists.  Her  hands  were  small  and  expressive, 
her  hair  rippled  about  her  face  and  was  dressed 
high  at  the  back  of  her  well-shaped  head.  Her 
cheeks  glowed  with  color  and  her  eyes  were  clear, 
unwavering,  like  wells  of  light. 

Mrs.  Choate  was  not  much  over  twenty,  a  young 
wife  and  mother  who  had  never  been  away  from 
home  before.  Mrs.  Eddy  called  her  "child,"  and 
took  her  into  that  circle  of  friends  which  closely  sur- 
rounded her.  Later  Mrs.  Choate  and  her  husband 
came  to  live  across  the  street.  She  was  much  with 
Mrs.  Eddy  in  and  out  of  the  house,  and  her  happy 
spirits  often  relieved  the  strain  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  ar- 
duous days.    It  was  in  May  that  they  came  to  reside 


ORGANIZATION  OF  CHURCH  AND  COLLEGE    265 

in  Lynn.  Her  husband,  George  D.  Choate,  entered 
a  class  during  that  month,  his  opposition  to  Chris- 
tian Science  having  been  swept  away  by  his  wife's 
marvelous  healing  and  her  enthusiasm  for  the 
cause  of  the  new  religious  movement.  They  were 
later  to  aiu  in  the  establishment  of  college  and 
church. 

Other  students  who  now  came  into  the  work  were 
Miss  Julia  Bartlett,  Mrs.  Ellen  J.  Clark,  Arthur 
True  Buswell,  and  James  Ackland.  Some  of  them 
lodged  in  the  Broad  street  house,  occupying  the 
several  chambers  of  the  second  floor,  but  not  living 
at  the  family  table.  Many  incidents  of  the  daily 
life  of  Mrs.  Eddy  are  related  by  the  students  which 
show  her  never  to  have  forgotten  those  sterling 
habits  gained  from  the  guidance  of  a  mother  re- 
markable throughout  her  life  for  housewifely  virtue. 

Though  occasionally  entertaining  her  students  at 
table  and  serving  them  with  the  food  she  prepared 
with  her  own  hands,  she  was  ever  the  teacher,  writer, 
lecturer,  organizer.  If  she  sometimes  walked  on  a 
pleasant  evening  with  them  to  her  favorite  retreat 
on  the  beach,  she  never  relaxed  into  the  idleness  of 
mere  diversion.  Spiritual  realization  was  the  con- 
stant theme  of  her  conversation.  Those  around  her 
had  found  health,  harmony,  joy  in  the  science  of 
being  which  she  had  taught  them ;  they  must  help 
her  to  spread  this  gospel.  The  world  was  hungering 
for  this  truth ;  it  must  be  fed.  The  world  was  sick 
in  sin  and  error;  it  must  be  healed  and  taught 
truth.  None  of  the  students  found  in  her  a  com- 
panion in  idle  thought  and  self-seeking.    Sometimes 


266  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

they  complained  of  it  and  would  have  had  her 
merrier,  more  diverted,  less  contained,  and  full  of 
far-seeing  plans.  Because  of  her  persistently  main- 
tained superiority  to  these  human  instincts  some  of 
the  students  were  eventually  estranged. 

Organization  was  her  word  for  the  hour.  It  had 
become  in  her  mind  an  imperative  duty  to  organize 
the  Christian  Science  church.  A  tentative  organi- 
zation had  been  made.  In  1875,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, the  little  band  of  eight  students  had  pledged 
themselves  to  raise  money  for  church  services,  but 
their  ranks  had  been  broken  by  rebellion  and  that 
organization  was  disbanded.  On  July  4,  1876,  the 
Christian  Scientist  Association  was  formed  to  hold 
the  students  together  for  work  and  occasional  meet- 
ings. This  proved  effectual  for  its  purpose  for  a 
number  of  years.  Mrs.  Eddy  now  urged  the  incorpo- 
ration of  a  church  society.  This  was  accomplished  in 
August,  1879,  and  a  charter,  issued  August  23,  was 
received  from  the  state.  The  articles  of  incorpora- 
tion stated  that  the  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  was 
to  be  established  in  Boston,  thus  fulfilling  Mrs. 
Eddy's  prophetic  vision. 

The  members  of  the  new  church  were  twenty-six 
in  number  and  the  organization  was  made  at  the 
home  of  Mrs.  Margaret  Dunshee  in  Charlestown. 
The  first  officers  and  directors  were:  Mrs.  Eddy, 
president;  Margaret  Dunshee,  treasurer;  Edward 
A.  Orne,  Miss  Dorcas  Rawson,  Arthur  True  Bus- 
well,  James  Ackland,  Margaret  J.  Foley,  Mary 
Ruddock,  Oren  Carr,  directors.  They  elected  and 
ordained  Mrs.  Eddy  pastor  after  the  Congregational 


ORGANIZATION  OF  CHURCH  AND  COLLEGE    267 

method  of  New  England.  This  is  not  the  basis  of 
the  present  Christian  Science  church,  but  the  organi- 
zation continued  in  existence  for  about  thirteen  years 
when  the  church  was  reorganized. 

For  a  year  and  a  half  the  church  carried  on  pubHc 
meetings  in  the  parlors  of  the  various  members. 
Not  until  December,  1883,  were  regular  services 
held  in  a  public  hall.  The  first  public  meetings  of 
the  church  were  convened  at  Hawthorne  Hall  on 
Park  street,  Boston,  and  that  hall,  which  has  since 
been  demolished,  was  the  real  cradle  of  the  church. 
Mrs.  Eddy  was  the  active  pastor  from  the  date  of 
organization  and  regularly  preached  a  Sunday 
morning  sermon.  Even  before  the  church  regularly 
engaged  a  hall  in  Boston  she  preached  at  Parker 
Fraternity  building,  making  the  trip  to  Boston  from 
her  Lynn  home  for  this  purpose.  On  the  morning 
of  each  Sabbath  her  students  would  seek  her  and 
find  her  sitting  with  closed  eyes,  deep  in  meditation. 
Urging  her  to  eat,  to  dress,  to  make  preparation  for 
the  delivering  of  her  sermon,  they  expressed  much 
love  in  solicitation.  She  would,  however,  send  them 
away,  demanding  silence  and  time  for  thought.  On 
the  railway  train  from  Lynn  to  Boston  the  students 
would  join  her.  She  was  always  faultlessly  dressed 
and  usually  in  a  mood  of  spiritual  gaiety. 

In  the  pulpit  there  was  never  a  trace  of  fatigue. 
It  has  been  said  that  her  sermons  were  exhilarating 
and  moved  her  audiences  to  emotional  exaltation; 
yet  in  the  same  breath  critics  add  that  she  brought 
forward  only  the  healing  phase  of  her  teaching, 
seldom    touching   on   religious   questions,   such    as 


268  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

repentance,  humility,  or  prayer.  They  say  that  she 
was  cold  or  indifferent  to  such  topics.  These  two 
statements  are  not  consistent,  nor  is  the  latter 
founded  on  fact.  Many  of  her  sermons  are  included 
in  *' Miscellaneous  Writings"  and  are  essentially 
spiritual.  Prayer,  Mrs.  Eddy  teaches,  is  the  reali- 
zation of  the  omnipresence  of  God  and  the  aspira- 
tion for  purity.  Silent  realization  has  always  been 
an  opening  ceremony  of  her  church.  As  for  re- 
pentance, she  taught  the  very  essence  of  it,  which 
she  declared  was  the  forsaking  of  sin. 

The  seeds  of  rebellion  were  in  the  first  church 
organization.  The  reactionary  effect  observable  in 
many  of  the  early  students  was  to  repeat  itself. 
Kennedy  had  persisted  in  the  use  of  mesmerism, 
Spofford  endeavored  to  wrest  the  leadership  from 
the  church's  founder,  now  Arens  conceived  the  idea 
of  writing  a  book  on  the  topics  he  had  studied,  and 
for  that  purpose  stole  bodily  from  Mrs.  Eddy's 
writings.  He  preceded  her  to  Boston  and  opened 
an  office  not  far  from  where  Kennedy  had  estab- 
lished himself.  Rebellion  now  broke  forth  with  vio- 
lence in  a  group  of  students  who  walked  out  in  a 
body.  They  prepared  the  following  statement  as 
their  reason  for  so  doing: 

We,  the  undersigned,  while  we  acknowledge  and 
appreciate  the  understanding  of  Truth  imparted 
to  us  by  our  teacher,  Mrs.  Mary  B.  G.  Eddy,  led 
by  Divine  Intelligence  to  perceive  with  sorrow  that 
departure  from  the  straight  and  narrow  road  (which 
alone  leads  to  growth  in  Christlike  virtues)  made 
manifest  by  frequent  ebullitions  of  temper,  love  of 


ORGANIZATION  OF  CHURCH  AND   COLLEGE    269 

money,  and  the  appearance  of  hypocrisy,  cannot 
longer  submit  to  such  leadership.  Therefore,  with- 
out aught  of  hatred,  revenge,  or  petty  spite  in  our 
hearts,  from  a  sense  of  duty  alone,  to  her,  the  cause, 
and  ourselves,  do  most  respectfully  withdraw  our 
names  from  the  Christian  Science  Association  and 
Church  of  Christ,  Scientist. 

S.  Louise  Durant,  Jane  I.  Straw, 

Margaret  J.  Dunshee,  Anna  B.  Newman, 

Dorcas  B.  Rawson,  James  C.  Howard, 

Elizabeth  G.  Stuart,  Miranda  R.  Rice. 
21   October,   1881. 

Examining  the  charges  summed  up  in  this  state- 
ment, it  can  readily  be  seen  how  the  fresh  impetus 
at  work  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  mind  had  wrought  upon 
these  narrow- visioned  artisans.  The  Boston  lec- 
tures had  seemed  to  take  the  work  beyond  their 
sphere;  the  influx  of  new  students  from  beyond 
Lynn  had  detached  the  teacher's  attention  from 
their  immediate  concerns;  the  necessity  to  provide 
funds  for  propaganda  had  put  an  end  to  the  easy- 
going communistic  methods  of  the  primitive  move- 
ment; and  above  all,  Mrs.  Eddy  had  commanded 
an  extraordinary  obedience  from  her  later  students 
and  they  had  submitted.  Mr.  Choate  went  to  Port- 
land where  she  sent  him  to  teach,  heal,  and  lecture, 
Mr.  Buswell  went  on  a  similar  errand  to  Cincinnati, 
Joseph  Morton  was  sent  to  New  York.  These  were 
the  signs  of  a  burgeoning  of  the  work  which  alarmed 
the  first  students,  and  some  of  them  retaliated,  as 
has  been  shown,  by  malediction. 

Had  Mrs.  Eddy  been  the  virago  and  the  avari- 
cious  hypocrite   that   they   in   their   suspicion   and 


270  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

jealousy  brought  themselves  to  believe,  her  work 
would  have  died  in  Lynn,  and  the  greatest  religious 
movement  of  modern  times  would  never  have  been 
known.  But  instead  of  receiving  its  death  blow 
from  the  carefully  worded  epistle  of  apology,  it  was 
re-baptized  and  confirmed,  and  the  young  church 
was  in  reality  purged  of  the  worst  elements  of  oppo- 
sition and  encumbrances  of  ineff  ectuality  which  had 
hampered  its  growth. 

The  apology  was  read  at  a  meeting  at  the  home 
of  Mrs.  F.  A.  Daman  of  Lynn,  in  whose  parlor  the 
Christian  Science  church  convened  in  the  summer 
and  fall  of  1880.  Mrs.  Eddy,  who  had  attended 
the  meeting  unaware  of  the  agitation  brewing  seces- 
sion, was  entirely  unprepared  for  the  epistle.  Grieved 
and  astounded,  she  addressed  the  meeting  in  reply. 
She  declared  that  these  deluded  students  were  the 
victims  of  that  worldly  influence  which  perverted 
the  sense  of  spiritual  things,  an  influence  which  the 
teaching  of  Christian  Science  almost  invariably 
aroused  in  its  first  encounter  with  worldly  desires, 
but  not  to  be  expected  from  those  who  had  resisted 
flippancy  and  ridicule  for  years.  She  pleaded  with 
them  to  rid  themselves  of  such  thoughts,  to  rise 
above  personal  rivalries,  jealousies,  and  ambitions, 
to  purge  their  minds  of  the  critical  spirit  which  led 
them  to  misconceive  her  own  life  and  work,  and  to 
reaffirm  the  high  purpose  to  which  they  had  been 
called,  namely  the  founding  of  the  church. 

Finding  that  her  appeal  did  not  meet  with  the  re- 
sponse which  would  have  shown  the  rebellious  stud- 
ents merely  the   victims  of  a  temporary  delusion, 


ORGANIZATION  OF  CHURCH  AND   COLLEGE    271 

but  beginning  to  realize  that  they  were  incapable 
of  the  work  to  which  she  urged  them,  she  made  a 
masterly  decision.  She  took  from  them  the  right  to 
resign  by  expelling  them  from  the  ranks  of  her 
church,  thereby  preserving  the  church's  charter. 
She  took  one  week  for  this  sweeping  move,  having 
warned  them  directly  after  the  reading  of  the  paper 
that  they  were  liable  to  expulsion.  They  failed  to 
comprehend  her  meaning.  She  was,  however,  about 
to  assert  that  power  and  strength  which  has  been 
hers  in  all  subsequent  emergencies  in  her  church, 
the  force  and  foresight  which  has  caused  the  world 
to  acknowledge  her  a  leader  preeminent  in  efficiency 
and  masterly  direction.  She  was  determined  to  pre- 
serve the  remnant  of  her  church  against  such  inter- 
necine strife  by  asserting  its  substantial  integrity 
and  its  power  to  rid  itself  of  rebels. 

Her  act  had  a  most  salutary  effect  on  the  loyal 
students.  Dismay  had  at  first  threatened  them. 
They  now  rallied  around  her  and  in  a  few  weeks 
published  in  the  Lynn  papers  a  reply  to  the  seceders 
in  the  form  of  resolutions.  In  these  they  expressed 
their  heartfelt  love  and  gratitude  for  their  teacher 
and  acknowledged  her  as  their  leader  in  Christian 
Science,  saying  that  she  alone  was  able  to  protect 
the  work  she  had  founded;  they  denounced  the 
charges  brought  against  her  as  utterly  false  and  de- 
plored the  wickedness  of  those  who  could  abuse  one 
who  had  befriended  them  in  their  need  and  rebuked 
them  with  honesty.  They  expressed  their  admira- 
tion and  reverence  for  her  Christlike  example  of 
meekness  and  charity,  and  declared  that  in  future 


272  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

they  would  more  faithfully  obey  her  instructions 
in  appreciation  of  her  Christian  leadership. 

Thus  Mrs.  Eddy  preserved  the  organization  of 
her  church  and  she  had  already  laid  the  foundation 
for  the  college  of  instruction  she  purposed  to  estab- 
lish in  Boston.  The  Massachusetts  Metaphysical 
College  was  the  name  she  selected  for  that  institu- 
tion, which  she  organized  in  January,  1881,  six 
months  before  the  struggle  in  her  church.  She 
drew  up  an  agreement  with  six  students  to  teach 
pathology,  ontology,  therapeutics,  moral  science, 
metaphysics,  and  their  application  to  the  treatment 
of  diseases,  and  for  these  purposes  the  college  or- 
ganization received  a  charter  from  the  Common- 
wealth of  Massachusetts.  Mrs.  Eddy  was  named 
president  and  the  six  students  directors. 

To  thoroughly  understand  the  force  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  character  it  is  only  necessary  to  view  the 
difficulties  of  the  situation  in  which  she  was  placed 
when  she  perfected  these  two  basic  organizations. 
She  had  been  so  pressed  for  money  that  she  had 
been  obliged  to  go  upon  her  knees  and  cleanse  her 
own  floors,  she  had  had  to  make  over  the  garments 
she  wore  to  present  a  faultless  appearance  of  good 
taste  to  the  public ;  she  had  protected  her  husband 
by  her  own  energetic  conference  with  counsel  and 
witnesses  in  a  conspiracy  to  charge  him  with  mur- 
der ;  she  had  seen  her  oldest  and  most  trusted  women 
students  plot  against  her  and  desert  her;  she  had 
lectured  and  taught,  and  sent  out  missionaries  to 
the  North,  South,  and  West;  she  had  sent  Mrs. 
Choate  as  a  precursor  to  Boston. 


ORGANIZATION  OF  CHURCH  AND   COLLEGE    273 

In  the  midst  of  such  activities  the  third  edition  of 
"Science  and  Health"  had  been  prepared  and  was 
in  press.  It  was  issued  in  1881,  and  contained  those 
chapters  whose  mere  captions  arouse  to-day  in  her 
thousands  of  followers  the  enthusiasm  of  faith. 
Footsteps  of  Truth,  Science  of  Being,  Recapitula- 
tion, Creation,  Prayer,  and  Atonement  were  in  its 
contents.  This  edition  retrieved  the  blundering 
workmanship  of  the  second  edition  and  is  in  some 
respects*  a  clearer  statement  of  her  doctrine  than  she 
had  yet  made.  With  such  comprehensive  and  effec- 
tive efforts  for  the  future,  she  prepared  to  leave 
Lynn  and  to  step  into  the  full  current  of  the  life  of 
her  times  in  the  city  conceded  to  have  the  greatest 
culture  in  America. 

Thus  very  shortly  after  the  publication  of  the 
resolutions  by  her  faithful  students  in  February, 
1882,  the  furnishings  of  the  Broad  street  house  were 
packed  and  stored  until  determinate  arrangements 
should  be  made  for  a  future  residence.  On  the  last 
evening  before  leaving  Lynn  a  meeting  of  the  church 
was  held  in  the  denuded  rooms,  the  members  seated 
on  packing-cases  for  their  final  deliberations.  At 
this  meeting  Miss  Julia  Bartlett  was  received  into 
the  church.  She  later  performed  an  important  work 
of  teaching  and  healing  in  New  Hampshire.  Miss 
Bartlett  is  probably  the  oldest  member  of  the  Chris- 
tian Science  church  who  has  remained  unfaltering 
in  loyalty  to  the  cause.  She  resides  to-day  in  St. 
Botolph  street,  Boston.  She  has  been  a  remarkably 
successful  healer  and  it  was  through  her  work  in 

18 


274  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

New  Hampshire  that  many  students,  among  them 
the  family  of  Ira  O.  Knapp,  were  brought  into 
Christian  Science.  Mr.  Knapp  is  one  of  the  directors 
of  the  Mother  Church. 

Before  settUng  in  Boston  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Eddy 
made  a  visit  to  Washington  and  on  this  occasion 
Mr.  Eddy  performed  a  service  of  inestimable  value 
for  his  wife  and  the  cause  to  which  she  was  dedi- 
cated. This  was  the  thorough  investigation  of  the 
subject  of  copyrights.  Through  the  labors  of  her 
husband,  Mrs.  Eddy  was  thoroughly  enlightened 
on  this  most  important  matter,  important  to  the 
security  of  all  her  subsequent  work.  It  has  been 
remarked  again  and  again,  sometimes  critically  by 
those  who  saw  only  the  worldly  advantage  of  pro- 
tection to  property,  again  admiringly  by  those  who 
perceive  that  every  act  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  business 
career  was  established  in  sanity  and  adherence  to 
the  law,  that  her  copyrights  have  been  iron-clad 
and  infrangible  and  never  neglected.  Perhaps  to 
her  followers  alone  the  real  value  of  her  copyrights 
is  apparent.  Their  value  to  Christian  Scientists  is 
that  they  preserve  Christian  Science  unadulterated 
for  the  years  to  come. 

The  necessity  for  investigation  into  this  highly 
abstruse  and  perplexing  subject  was  made  apparent 
by  the  perfidy  of  the  student,  Edward  J.  Arens.  He, 
some  time  in  1880,  became  imbued  with  the  idea  of 
metaphysical  authorship,  doubtless  planning  to  turn 
his  energies  to  the  same  purpose  that  had  been 
threatened  by  a  former  student,  namely,  to  wrest 
the   leadership  of   Christian  Science   from  its  dis- 


ORGANIZATION  OF  CHURCH  AND  COLLEGE     275 

coverer.  He  issued  a  pamphlet  entitled  "Theology, 
or  the  Understanding  of  God  as  Applied  to  Healing 
the  Sick." 

The  preface  to  the  third  edition  of  "Science  and 
Health"  was  written  by  Asa  G.  Eddy,  and  in  writing 
it  Mr.  Eddy  dealt  vigorously  with  Arens.  He  states 
that  while  Arens  says  he  has  made  use  in  his  pam- 
phlet of  "some  thoughts  contained  in  a  work  by 
Eddy,"  he  for  over  thirty  pages  repeats  Mrs.  Eddy's 
words  verbatim,  having  copied  them  without  quota- 
tion and  filching,  among  other  passages  of  the  book, 
the  very  heart  of  Christian  Science.  This  is  the 
scientific  statement  of  being  which  Mr.  Eddy  calls 
"that  immortal  sentence,"  and  which  reads :  "There 
is  no  life,  truth,  intelligence,  nor  substance  in  matter. 
All  is  infinite  Mind  and  its  infinite  manifestation,  for 
God  is  All  in  all.  Spirit  is  immortal  Truth ;  matter 
is  mortal  error.  Spirit  is  the  real  and  eternal; 
matter  is  the  unreal  and  temporal.  Spirit  is  God, 
and  man  is  His  image  and  likeness ;  hence,  man  is 
spiritual  and  not  material."  ^ 

Mr.  Eddy  very  tersely  says  in  his  arraignment  of 
Arens:  "If  simply  writing  at  the  commencement 
of  a  work,  'I  have  made  use  of  some  thoughts 
of  Emerson'  gave  one  the  right  to  walk  over  the 
author's  copyrights  and  use  page  after  page  of  his 
writings  verbatim,  publishing  them  as  his  own,  any 
fool  might  aspire  to  authorship  and  any  villain  be- 
come the  expounder  of  truth."  He  then  makes  this 
statement  concerning  his  wife:  "Mrs.  Eddy's 
works  are  the  outgrowth  of  her  life.  I  never  knew 
so  unselfish  an  individual,  or  one  so  tireless  in  what 

*  "Science  and  Health,"  p.  468. 


276  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

she  considers  her  duty."  As  for  Arens,  he  dismisses 
him  with  this  emphatic  characterization :  "It  would 
require  ages  and  God's  mercy  to  make  the  ignorant 
hypocrite  who  pubUshed  that  pamphlet  originate 
its  contents.  His  pratings  are  colored  by  his  char- 
acter; they  cannot  impart  the  hue  of  ethics,  but 
leave  his  own  impress  on  what  he  takes." 

The  federal  courts  subsequently  enjoined  Arens 
not  to  publish  or  circulate  his  pamphlet,  and  all 
printed  copies  were  destroyed  by  order  of  the  court. 
This  did  not  happen  until  after  Mr.  Eddy's  death, 
or  until  process  of  law  dealt  with  Arens,  as  shall 
be  presently  recounted.  But  Arens'  perfidy  wrought 
upon  Mr.  Eddy  seriously.  He  suffered  real  anguish 
of  mind  from  it,  being  far  more  disturbed  than  was 
his  wife,  for  he  regarded  it  as  a  culmination  of  bitter 
attacks  upon  her  work  and  an  exhibition  of  mali- 
cious animal  magnetism. 

Speaking  in  a  purely  human  sense,  Mr.  Eddy  re- 
sented the  unfaithfulness  of  one  whom  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  taught  and  trusted  very  largely  with  her  busi- 
ness affairs.  He  felt  it  keenly  that  one  who  had  gone 
through  such  an  experience  of  unjust  prosecution  as 
Arens  had  suffered  jointly  with  him  in  the  Lynn 
conspiracy  and  who  had  been  defended  by  his  wife's 
faithful  energies  should  now  array  himself  against 
the  cause.  Arens  was  living  in  Boston  not  far  from 
the  house  on  Columbus  avenue  which  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Eddy  leased  in  the  spring  of  1882.  He  was  teaching 
and  preaching  adversely  to  Christian  Science,  and 
as  yet  had  not  been  restrained  from  circulating  his 
pirated  writings. 


ORGANIZATION  OF  CHURCH  AND  COLLEGE    277 

Whether  or  not  it  was  as  a  result  of  sorrow  en- 
gendered in  his  heart  or  distress  arising  in  his  mind 
over  the  continual  harassment  brought  by  attacks 
on  the  work  to  which  he  had  given  his  energies,  Mr. 
Eddy  visibly  failed  in  health.  His  heart  became 
weak ;  he  lost  his  appetite  and  could  not  sleep.  He 
complained  of  a  sense  of  suffocation,  an  oppression 
of  the  suggestion  of  evil.  Mrs.  Eddy  summoned  Dr. 
Rufus  K.  Noyes,  a  graduate  of  the  Dartmouth 
Medical  School,  who  was  then  a  resident  of  Lynn, 
but  who  is  now  a  distinguished  Boston  physician. 
He  was  known  to  Mrs.  Eddy  as  a  young  man  of 
brilliant  achievements  for  his  years,  and  had  re- 
cently served  as  a  resident  physician  in  the  city 
hospital. 

She  summoned  Dr.  Noyes  to  diagnose  her  hus- 
band's case,  for  much  perplexity  had  arisen  among 
her  students  concerning  his  condition.  She  told 
the  physician  she  believed  her  husband  was  suffer- 
ing from  the  suggestion  of  arsenical  poisoning,  be- 
cause, to  her,  the  symptoms  appeared  to  be  those 
of  actual  or  material  arsenic.  Some  of  her  house- 
hold had  believed  Mr.  Eddy  was  suffering  from 
cancer  of  the  stomach.  Dr.  Noyes  diagnosed  the 
case  as  disease  of  the  heart.  He  advised  rest  and 
tonic,  digitalis  and  strychnia.  But  Dr.  Noyes  be- 
lieves that  his  prescription  was  not  adhered  to  and 
no  medicines  were  administered. 

It  may  be  asked  why  Mrs.  Eddy  called  a  regular 
physician,  especially  if  she  did  not  intend  to  ad- 
minister the  medicines  prescribed.  A  great  deal  of 
excitement  was  aroused  by  her  husband's  illness, 


278  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

both  among  her  friends  and  her  critics.  She  de- 
sired a  diagnosis  at  which  no  man  or  woman  could 
cavil.  She  did  not  believe  that  her  husband  had 
cancer,  or  that  his  heart  was  defective,  but  that  he 
was  suffering  from  suggestion.  She  believed  that 
a  practising  physician,  trained  in  natural  science, 
would  bear  her  out  in  this  and  thus  clinch  her  own 
diagnosis.  But  she  was  ahead  of  her  age.  Ex- 
perimental psychology  had  not  then  made  the  im- 
portant discovery  that  the  deadliest  poison  is  a 
secretion  engendered  by  the  working  of  hatred.^ 

That  Mr.  Eddy  suffered  greatly,  and  that  Mrs. 
Eddy  suffered  with  him  in  her  deep  affection  and 
sympathy  is  vouched  for.      A  student  who  came 

*  The  Washington  Herald  in  August,  1907,  printed  an  article  descriptive 
of  the  experiments  of  Professor  Elmer  Gates  in  his  laboratory  of  psychology 
and  psychurgy.  The  article  was  also  printed  in  the  Chicago  Tribune.  It 
states:  "Professor  Gates  has  shown  the  causative  character  of  thinking  in  a 
long  series  of  most  comprehensive  and  convincing  experiments.  He  found  that 
change  of  mental  state  changed  the  chemical  character  of  the  perspiration. 
When  treated  with  the  same  chemical  re-agent  the  perspiration  of  an  angry 
man  showed  one  color,  that  of  a  man  in  grief  another,  and  so  on  through  the 
list  of  emotions,  each  mental  state  persistently  exhibiting  its  own  peculiar 
result  every  time  the  experiment  was  repeated. 

"When  the  breath  of  Professor  Gates'  subject  was  passed  through  a  tube 
cooled  with  ice,  so  as  to  condense  its  volatile  constituents,  a  colorless  liquid 
resulted.  .  .  .  He  made  his  subject  angry  and  five  minutes  afterwards  a  sedi- 
ment appeared  in  the  tube  which  indicated  the  presence  there  of  a  new  sub- 
stance produced  by  the  changed  physical  action  caused  by  a  change  of  the 
mental  emotion.  Anger  gave  a  brownish  substance,  sorrow  gray,  etc.  .  .  . 
Each  kind  of  thinking  produced  its  own  pecuUar  substance  which  the  system 
was  trying  to  expel.  .  .  .  Professor  Gates  undertook  to  discover  the  character 
of  the  substances  which  he  obtained  by  condensation  of  the  breath  of  his  sub- 
jects. The  brownish  precipitate  from  the  breath  of  any  persons  administered 
either  to  men  or  to  animals  caused  stimulation  and  excitement  of  the  nerves. 
Another  substance,  produced  by  another  kind  of  discordant  thinking,  when 
injected  into  the  veins  of  a  guinea  pig  or  a  hen,  killed  it  outright.  .  .  .  The 
deadhest  poison  known  to  science  is  hate.  Professor  Elmer  Gates  is  the  man 
who  has  found  it  out,  .  .  .  who  has  demonstrated  it." 


ORGANIZATION  OF  CHURCH  AND  COLLEGE    279 

and  went  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  house  with  the  freedom 
of  a  sister  has  drawn  a  picture  of  the  hour  of  sorrow 
which  is  tenderly  beautiful.  Mrs.  Eddy  had  the 
work  of  her  church  to  carry  on;  her  room  was 
littered  with  books  and  papers ;  there  was  no  order 
there  at  this  time,  for  she  could  give  but  snatches 
of  attention  to  affairs  while  her  husband  was  lying 
stricken  in  an  adjoining  room.  He  breathed  with 
agony  and  with  physical  sobs.  Sitting  by  him, 
Mrs.  Eddy  would  lay  her  face  close  to  his  and 
murmur,  **  Gilbert,  Gilbert,  do  not  suffer  so,"  and 
under  her  silent  treatment  he  would  be  relieved  for 
a  time  and  sleep. 

But  Mr.  Eddy  observed  that  he  distracted  his  wife 
from  her  pressing  business  and  heroically  declared, 
*'My  sickness  is  nothing;  I  can  handle  this  belief 
myself."  He  steadfastly  declared  he  was  coping 
with  the  attack  and  urged  his  wife  to  leave  him. 
When  she  had  reluctantly  done  so,  he  experienced 
a  depression,  but  refused  to  have  her  called  to  re- 
lieve him.  Just  before  his  death  he  cried  out,  "  Only 
rid  me  of  this  suggestion  of  poison  and  I  will  re- 
cover." Mrs.  Eddy  had  retired  but  was  called ;  her 
husband  expired,  however,  before  she  could  reach 
him.  This  was  before  daybreak  on  Saturday  morn- 
ing, June  3,  1882. 

If  there  is  any  truth  in  the  old  saying,  died  of  a 
broken  heart,  it  might  well  be  applied  to  the  death 
of  this  good  man.  Because  of  the  persistent  rumors 
concerning  his  illness  and  death,  rumors  that  he 
had  had  a  cancer,  that  he  had  been  taking  arsenic, 
and  even  that  some  one  had  actually  given  him  a 


280  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

dose  of  poison,  Mrs.  Eddy  again  called  Dr.  Noyes, 
this  time  to  perform  an  autopsy.  Dr.  Noyes  ex- 
posed the  heart  and  exhibited  the  physical  organ  to 
Mrs.  Eddy,  pointing  out  the  valvular  difficulty.  He 
found  no  traces  of  arsenic  whatsoever,  no  cancer  or 
other  disease  of  the  stomach. 

In  so  far  then  as  the  surgeon's  knife  can  prove 
anything,  Mr.  Eddy  died  of  heart  exhaustion.  But 
the  surgeon's  knife  cannot  find  everything;  it  can- 
not find  love,  for  example,  in  the  noblest  heart  that 
ever  beat ;  nor  can  it  find  hate  in  the  crudest.  Who 
can  with  authority  deny  Mrs.  Eddy's  statement  that 
poison  mentally  administered  killed  her  husband? 
"Not  material  poison,"  she  declared,  "but  mes- 
meric poison." 

It  may  not  be  the  term  that  natural  science  would 
admit,  but  natural  science  acknowledges  readily 
that  grief,  disappointment,  and  profound  depres- 
sion will  cause  heart  failure.  Remembering  the 
wicked  charge  of  wilful  attempt  to  murder  falsely 
brought  against  Mr.  Eddy,  and  the  cruel  assaults 
upon  his  wife,  whom  he  loved  and  cherished,  by 
the  seceding  students,  and  the  attempt  at  a  veritable 
overthrow  of  the  work  to  which  he  was  devoted,  it 
may  be  very  easily  understood  why  Mrs.  Eddy  de- 
clared that  her  husband  was  mentally  poisoned,  and 
in  that  statement  doubtless  she  was  scientifically 
exact.  It  should  be  remembered  that  this  happened 
in  the  early  days  of  Christian  Science  practise  and 
at  a  time  when  Mrs.  Eddy  was  just  awakening  to 
the  pernicious  mental  influence  of  hate.  Christian 
Science  presents  a  doctrine  of  love  which  antidotes 


ORGANIZATION  OF  CHURCH  AND  COLLEGE    281 

hate.  "Divine  Love  always  has  met  and  always 
will  meet  every  human  need,"  says  Mrs.  Eddy  in 
"Science  and  Health." 

Mr.  Eddy's  remains  were  taken  to  Tilton,  New 
Hampshire,  and  interred  in  the  cemetery  on  the 
banks  of  the  Merrimac  River  in  the  shadow  of  the 
beautiful  foot-hills  of  the  White  Mountains.  A 
granite  shaft  marks  the  spot.  Mr.  George  D.  Choate 
accompanied  the  body  and  Mrs.  Clara  Choate  re- 
mained with  Mrs.  Eddy  who  arranged  for  her  the 
topics  of  the  eulogy  which  Mrs.  Choate  delivered 
on  Mr.  Eddy  in  Hawthorne  Hall.  Her  subject 
was:  "Blessed  are  they  who  die  in  the  Lord;  for 
their  works  shall  follow  them." 


CHAPTER     XVIII 

FOUNDATION   WORK   IN   BOSTON 

WITH  the  death  of  her  husband  Mrs.  Eddy  suf- 
fered a  severe  blow,  having  lost  a  devoted 
co-worker  and  friend  in  whom  she  had  found 
great  satisfaction  through  a  most  exalted  human 
relationship.  A  new  chapter  now  opens  in  her  life, 
a  period  of  worldly  activity  in  the  cause  of  religion. 
She  becomes  the  founder  and  the  organizer,  the 
teacher  and  promulgator  of  Christian  Science  and 
in  this  character  transcends  her  former  self  as  the 
kind  hostess  and  sympathetic  friend.  Girlhood, 
widowhood,  wifehood  vanish,  are  swallowed  up,  in 
a  complex  but  unified  individuality  which  reveals 
her  preeminently  as  the  founder,  Mary  Baker  Eddy. 

The  most  cynical  critics  of  this  illustrious  woman 
have  made  the  comment  that  she  is  never  so  com- 
manding a  figure  as  when  she  bestirs  herself  in  the 
face  of  calamity.  Although  these  critics  have  es- 
sayed to  portray  her  in  the  sad  moment  of  her 
bereavement  as  a  woman  prostrated,  hysterical,  and 
exhausted,  afraid  to  go  out  of  her  house  and  afraid 
to  stay  in  it  when  in  the  quiet  upper  chamber  the 
mortal  remains  of  her  husband  lay  draped  for  the 
grave,  the  events  of  those  days  will  not  harmonize 
with  such  a  characterization. 

Mrs.  Eddy  was  self -controlled  in  the  face  of  her 


FOUNDATION  WORK  IN  BOSTON  283 

bereavement,  so  calm  that  she  in  every  way  con- 
formed to  the  usages  and  standards  of  the  world, 
and  yet  bore  herself  with  the  composure  of  one  act- 
ing in  sublime  faith.  As  there  had  been  unwarranted 
rumors  concerning  Mr.  Eddy's  illness  and  death, 
she  had  permitted  an  autopsy.  That  grim  function 
completed  and  the  verdict  of  heart  failure  rendered, 
Mrs.  Eddy  summoned  such  friends  and  students  as 
she  could  rely  upon.  Mr.  Eddy's  interment  was 
lovingly  arranged  for  and  carried  out  and  her  tribute 
to  his  life  and  work  was  pronounced  for  her  in  a 
public  service.  She  then  took  steps  to  withdraw  from 
active  work  through  the  summer  and  rearranged  her 
plans  for  a  campaign  of  severaJ  years,  looking  to  the 
establishment  of  the  church  on  a  firm  foundation. 

Before  leaving  Boston  for  a  summer's  rest,  a  period 
which  the  world  would  call  a  time  of  mourning,  but 
which  to  Mrs.  Eddy  was  a  spiritual  retreat  for  the 
restatement  in  her  consciousness  of  the  deep  things 
of  love  and  truth  and  immortality,  she  gathered 
together  her  students  and  gave  to  each  his  work. 
She  received  representatives  from  the  press  and 
granted  an  interview  in  which  she  refuted  the  pop- 
ular notion  that  consternation  had  seized  her  with 
the  swing  of  death's  pinion.  She  declared  with 
superb  affirmation,  ''I  believe  in  God's  supremacy 
over  error,  and  this  gives  me  peace." 

Mr.  Arthur  True  Buswell,  the  student  whom  Mrs. 
Eddy  had  sent  to  Cincinnati  to  teach  and  practise, 
came  to  her  house  in  Columbus  avenue,  summoned 
by  telegram  to  join  in  an  advisory  council.  He  sug- 
gested that  she  make  use  of  his  home  in  Barton,  in 


284  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

the  Northern  part  of  Vermont,  for  her  vacation, 
and  she  accepted.  Her  house  in  Boston  she  left  in 
the  care  of  her  students,  Miss  JuHa  Bartlett  and 
Mrs.  Abbie  Whiting.  She  took  with  her  as  com- 
panion for  the  summer  Miss  AHce  Sibley,  a  young 
woman  of  great  beauty  of  character  who  was  much 
endeared  to  her. 

Although  she  had  exhibited  heroic  qualities  of 
energy  and  fortitude,  neglecting  nothing  of  direction 
and  command  before  leaving  Boston,  she  showed 
on  the  journey  traces  of  nervous  exhaustion  and  at 
times  the  hysteria  of  grief  threatened  to  overwhelm 
her.  With  her  wonderful  faith  she  battled  against 
the  thoughts  which  assailed  her,  holding  herself  to 
her  great  purpose  with  the  energy  of  a  saint.  Mr. 
Buswell  relates  that  her  great  struggle  was  known 
to  his  household,  but  that  she  carried  it  through 
alone,  though  they  often  watched  outside  her  door. 
After  a  night  of  agony  she  would  emerge  from  her 
struggle  with  a  radiant  face  and  luminous  eyes,  and 
they  would  hesitate  to  speak  to  her  for  fear  of  dis- 
turbing the  peace  which  enveloped  her. 

However  great  the  struggle  of  the  night,  day  found 
her  ready  to  discuss  the  work  of  the  movement. 
During  the  brief  summer  she  constantly  considered 
the  situation  in  Boston.  She  planned  the  reorgani- 
zation of  her  household,  the  reopening  of  the  college, 
discussed  what  new  students  should  be  admitted  to 
the  fall  classes,  arranged  for  lectures  to  be  given  by 
the  old  students,  and  above  all  discussed  the  found- 
ing of  a  periodical  which  she  resolved  to  call  the 
Journal  oj  Christian  Science. 


FOUNDATION  WORK  IN  BOSTON  285 

In  such  practical  matters  Mr.  Buswell  could  help 
her,  and  together  they  discussed  the  proposed  new 
organ  of  the  propaganda.  She  decided  to  make 
Mr.  Buswell  the  first  assistant  editor  and  business 
manager.  This  subject  required  a  great  deal  of 
thoughtful  consideration  and  the  vital  needs  of  its 
conception  focussed  and  controlled  her  thought, 
leaving  her  grief  to  yield  more  gently  to  the  minis- 
tration of  divine  agency. 

An  almost  equally  important  matter  for  considera- 
tion was  the  future  conduct  of  her  household  which 
she  purposed  establishing  on  an  institutional  basis. 
She  turned  over  in  her  mind  the  qualifications  of 
students  in  order  to  settle  upon  one  in  whom  she 
could  repose  the  trust  of  steward  of  her  household. 
One  day  she  requested  Mr.  Buswell  to  telegraph  to 
Calvin  A.  Frye  of  Lawrence,  Massachusetts.  Di- 
rectly afterward  she  resolved  to  return  to  Boston, 
and  what  had  been  in  many  respects  a  pleasant 
summer  interval  of  inspirational  drives  and  walks 
shared  with  Alice  Sibley  and  of  practical  confer- 
ences with  Mr.  Buswell  now  came  to  an  end. 

Hastening  to  answer  Mrs.  Eddy's  summons,  Mr. 
Frye  met  the  returning  party  at  Plymouth,  New 
Hampshire.  Mrs.  Eddy  requested  him  to  make  the 
journey  to  Boston  with  them  and  on  the  train  she 
unfolded  in  part  her  plans  and  her  needs  of  efficient 
stewardship.  She  put  to  him  searching  questions 
concerning  his  own  life  and  his  willingness  to  serve 
the  cause  of  Christian  Science.  To  all  her  questions 
he  replied  sincerely  and  declared  himself  ready  to 
perform  whatever  lay  in  his  power.    Mrs.  Eddy  did 


286  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

not  tell  him  at  the  time  what  she  later  revealed 
to  him,  that  Mr.  Eddy  had  gone  to  Lawrence  some 
months  before  his  death  and  inquired  into  Mr. 
Frye's  record  with  the  possible  idea  of  summoning 
him  to  this  very  position.  He  had  anticipated  his 
wife's  need.  The  Rev.  Joshua  Coit,  Mr.  Frye's 
pastor  in  the  Congregational  church,  had  so  spoken 
of  Mr.  Frye  that  Mr.  Eddy  recommended  him  to  his 
wife  as  a  man  to  be  trusted  with  her  intimate  affairs. 

Mr.  Fiye  entered  Mrs.  Eddy's  household  on  her 
arrival  in  Boston  and  from  that  hour  to  the  present 
has  remained  faithful  in  her  service.  There  is  no 
term  that  will  cover  the  manifold  duties  which  have 
devolved  upon  him.  He  is  usually  spoken  of  as  her 
private  secretary  because  of  the  enormous  amount 
of  correspondence  of  which  he  relieves  her.  He  has 
been  her  bookkeeper,  her  purchasing  agent,  and 
her  personal  representative  on  many  important  oc- 
casions. Those  who  would  make  a  reproach  of  his 
faithfulness  have  referred  to  him  as  her  butler  and 
her  coachman.  Indeed,  he  has  not  hesitated  to  don 
a  livery  in  her  service  to  guard  her  on  her  daily 
drives. 

But  a  few  words  concerning  Mr.  Frye's  history 
will  correct  the  impression  that  the  titles  of  servitude 
are  warranted  by  his  natural  social  status.  The 
Frye  family  is  an  old  one,  as  American  ancestry 
goes.  His  grandfather  and  great-grandfather  fought 
in  the  wars  of  1812  and  the  Revolution.  Frye  vil- 
lage, now  a  part  of  Andover,  Massachusetts,  was 
named  for  his  grandfather  who  had  a  prosperous 
milling  business   there  in  grist  and  lumber.     His 


FOUNDATION  WORK  IN  BOSTON  287 

father,  Enoch  Frye,  prepared  for  college  in  Phillips 
Andover  Academy  and  graduated  from  Harvard  in 
the  class  made  famous  by  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 
Calvin  Frye  received  his  education  in  the  district 
school  of  Frye  village.  His  father  was  in  moderate 
circumstances,  having  contracted  a  lameness  which 
unfitted  him  for  active  life  work,  and  it  was  not  pos- 
sible for  him  to  educate  his  sons  as  he  had  himself 
been  educated.  There  were  five  children  of  Cal- 
vin's generation,  a  brother  who  died  in  infancy,  one 
who  lost  his  life  in  the  Civil  War,  another  who  is  a 
business  man  of  Boston,  and  a  sister  who  with  Calvin 
became  a  Christian  Scientist. 

Calvin  married  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  but  his 
wife  lived  only  a  year  after  the  marriage  and  they 
had  no  children.  He  thereafter  lived  at  home  with 
his  parents  and  sister  in  Lawrence,  working  in  the 
Natick  mill  as  an  overseer  of  machinery.  His  family 
all  belonged  to  the  Congregational  church,  his 
father  and  grandfather  before  him  having  been 
members  of  the  choir.  For  fifteen  years  Calvin  was 
an  active  church-worker,  librarian,  class  leader,  and 
usher.  He  and  his  sister  Lydia  became  interested 
in  Christian  Science  at  the  same  time  through  Mrs. 
Clara  Choate  who  carried  the  new  teaching  into 
Lawrence.  She  healed  a  relative  of  the  Frye  family 
and  was  then  invited  to  their  home. 

Mr.  Frye's  mother  had  suffered  from  mental  de- 
rangement for  many  years  and  Mrs.  Clara  Choate 
restored  her  to  sanity  which  continued  for  four  years, 
when  under  a  sudden  return  of  her  malady  she  ex- 
pired.    But  her  marvelous  restoration  made  firm 


288  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

converts  of  brother  and  sister,  and  Calvin  Frye  went 
to  Lynn  and  studied  Christian  Science  in  the  autumn 
of  1881  and  practised  healing  in  Lawrence  until 
Mrs.  Eddy  summoned  him  to  Boston.  Lydia  Frye 
Roaf  joined  her  brother  and  was  for  a  time  in  charge 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  domestic  affairs.  She  returned  to 
Lawrence  and  practised  Christian  Science  until  her 
death.  The  Fryes  have  been  a  united  family,  neg- 
lecting none  of  the  filial  duties  and  paying  each  other 
the  attention  of  yearly  visits.  Calvin  Frye  is  a  quiet, 
earnest  man  with  a  clear  and  placid  countenance, 
and  he  is  not  without  a  mild  mirthfulness  which 
makes  him  an  agreeable  companion.  His  education 
has  been  broadened  by  the  habit  of  reading.  In 
practical  matters  he  is  an  active,  careful  agent  and 
the  quality  of  faithfulness  is  preeminently  his. 

The  house  which  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Eddy  had  taken 
in  Boston  before  Mr.  Eddy's  death  was  at  569 
Columbus  avenue.  Shortly  after  her  return  to  Boston 
she  removed  to  the  house  next  door  at  571.  This  was 
a  three-story  dwelling  with  gray  stone  front.  It  was 
very  simply  furnished  for  Mrs.  Eddy  curtailed  and 
modified  the  views  of  the  enthusiastic  students  who 
would  have  had  her  (as  one  of  them  regretfully  ex- 
pressed it  to  the  author)  "lay  carpets  the  feet  would 
sink  into  or  hang  draperies  of  rich  lace  and  velvet 
and  decorate  with  bronzes  and  paintings  which 
would  reflect  her  taste  in  art."  The  students  who 
desired  and  urged  such  appointments  were  of  two 
temperaments,  those  who  loved  her  devotedly  in  a 
very  human  way  and  wished  to  exalt  her  before  the 
world  of  Boston;    others  who  had  decidedly  florid 


THE    MASSACHUSKITS    METAPHYSICAL    COLLEGE 

One  of  a  series  of  gray  stone  residences  in  Columbus  Avenue 
Boston,  occupied  by  Mrs.  Eddy  in  1882 


FOUNDATION  WORK  IN  BOSTON  289 

views  of  what  metaphysics  should  manifest  in 
worldly  appearance  and  would  have  turned  the 
modest  gray  institute  into  a  Vatican  palace,  with 
oratories,  perpetual  altar  lights,  and  chapel  incense 
as  its  features,  had  they  had  their  way. 

Mrs.  Eddy  had  previously  expressed  her  views  on 
these  matters.  Mrs.  Choate  had  given  her  a  recep- 
tion at  her  house  in  Tremont  street  at  the  corner  of 
Upton  street  on  her  return  with  Mr.  Eddy  from 
Washington  early  in  the  spring  of  1882.  Through 
the  efforts  of  a  student  who  had  a  large  social  ac- 
quaintance the  parlors  were  filled  with  fashionable 
Bostonians.  Mrs.  Eddy  was  simply  garbed  in  a 
quiet  gray  silk  with  a  black  lace  shawl  draped  over 
her  shoulders.  When  she  appeared  the  babble  was 
quieted  and  she  made  a  brief  address.  She  then 
shook  hands  with  a  few  of  the  guests,  and  retired 
from  the  scene  of  festivity.  She  afterward  told  her 
disappointed  students  that  Christian  Science  could 
not  be  forwarded  after  that  method. 

Governed  by  ideas  of  simplicity,  she  now  gave 
orders  for  the  fitting  out  of  the  college.  The  class- 
room on  the  second  floor  was  laid  with  oil-cloth. 
The  wealthy  and  fashionable  students,  of  whom 
there  were  now  a  good  many,  lifted  their  hands  in 
amazement  and  despair.  Mrs.  Eddy  further  ordered 
a  small  platform  built  in  one  corner  on  which  her 
table  and  chair  should  be  placed.  The  entire  house 
was  furnished  with  like  austerity  and  had  the  plain- 
ness of  an  office  even  in  the  front  parlors,  though  it 
was  always  garnished  throughout  with  the  shine  of 
perfect  order. 

19 


290  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Miss  Julia  Bartlett  and  Mrs.  Abbie  Whiting  were 
living  in  the  house.  AUce  Sibley  came  and  went 
with  the  freedom  of  a  daughter.  Mr.  Edward  H. 
Hammond  of  Waltham,  who  later  introduced  Chris- 
tian Science  into  Baltimore,  Mr.  Hanover  P.  Smith, 
who  wrote  a  book  of  appreciation  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  and 
Mr.  Arthur  Buswell  also  resided  there.  The  house 
was  run  on  the  cooperative  plan  and  the  residents 
all  used  the  parlors  for  receiving  patients,  each  hav- 
ing his  specified  office  hours. 

On  the  front  door  of  the  house  was  affixed  a  silver 
plate  bearing  the  inscription,  "The  Massachusetts 
Metaphysical  College, "and  students  soon  began  to 
overflow  the  parlors.  They  were  attracted  through 
the  public  services  at  which  Mrs.  Eddy  usually  pre- 
sided, or  through  the  accounts  of  her  own  or  her 
students'  healings  which  were  frequently  printed  in 
the  papers  of  Boston.  Mrs.  Eddy's  class-room  be- 
came the  center  and  soul  of  the  house.  She  was 
teaching  two  or  three  hours  a  day.  Of  the  work  of 
the  college  she  bore  the  entire  burden. 

So  much  did  she  pour  her  genius  into  it  that  when 
its  doors  were  finally  closed  in  1889  she  wrote  that 
the  college  drew  its  breath  from  her  and,  as  the 
reason  for  closing  it,  asked  who  else  could  sustain 
the  institute  in  its  vital  purpose  on  her  retirement. 
No  one  had  helped  her  carry  on  the  work  of  teaching 
up  to  this  time.  Asa  G.  Eddy,  it  is  true,  taught  two 
terms  in  Lynn;  Dr.  E.  J.  Foster-Eddy  taught  one 
term  in  Boston,  and  General  Erastus  N.  Bates  taught 
a  class  just  before  the  institute  was  closed.  But 
aside  from  this  assistance,  Mrs.  Eddy  taught  all  the 


FOUNDATION  WORK  IN  BOSTON  291 

classes  that  passed  through  the  college  during  the 
eight  years  of  its  existence.  The  students  aggregated 
four  thousand.  It  will  be  seen  that  Mrs.  Eddy  must 
have  taught  from  thirty  to  fifty  students  a  month 
throughout  this  period.  The  task  was  herculean, 
the  work  accomplished  amazing,  for  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  she  was  not  only  teaching  several 
hours  every  day  but  she  was  also  lecturing  every 
Thursday  evening  in  the  parlors  of  the  college  and 
preaching  almost  every  Sunday.  During  the  first 
few  months  after  her  return  to  Boston  she  was  ar- 
ranging for  the  establishment  of  the  Journal,  which 
made  great  demands  upon  her  time. 

The  Journal  of  Christian  Science,  afterwards 
called  the  Christian  Science  Journal,  made  its  first 
appearance  April  14,  1883.  The  little  magazine, 
destined  to  become  the  organ  of  the  church,  was  at 
first  an  eight- page  paper,  issued  every  other  month. 
It  was  an  attractive  publication  from  the  first  mo- 
ment of  its  birth,  and  to-day  those  first  numbers  are 
so  rare  and  so  eagerly  desired  that  the  bound  vol- 
umes are  worth  their  weight  in  gold.  In  the  pro- 
spectus Mrs.  Eddy  stated  the  purpose  of  the  Journal, 
or  rather  her  purpose  in  founding  it.  She  said  it  was 
the  desire  of  her  heart  "to  bring  to  many  a  house- 
hold health,  happiness,  and  increased  power  to  be 
good  and  to  do  good ;  —  to  kindle  all  minds  with  a 
common  sentiment  in  a  regard  for  and  understand- 
ing of  Infinite  Truth." 

It  was  not  a  great  literary  output  in  its  first  issues 
nor  did  it  leap  at  once  to  financial  self-sufliciency. 
Rather  was  it  a  shy,  modest  little  pamphlet  which 


292  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

required  the  sinking  of  a  good  deal  of  capital  to  get 
it  on  its  legs,  and  it  was  a  great  drain  on  the  attention 
of  the  founder.  But  it  was  seen  at  once  that  it  had 
a  sufficient  raison  d'Stre.  It  conveyed  rare  touches 
of  sympathy  for  lives  shut  in,  lives  that  were  deso- 
late, lives  that  had  seemed  to  spell  failure.  It  was 
not  sent  to  the  mighty  or  the  learned,  nor  was  it 
designed  for  such,  but  for  the  needy.  It  contained 
articles  on  how  to  keep  well,  on  prayer  as  a  spiritual 
aspiration,  on  sunshine  in  the  home,  on  the  folly  of 
having  nerves,  the  fallacy  of  that  tired  feeling,  the 
abuse  of  will  power.  Its  pages  sparkled  with  witty 
sayings  culled  from  great  authors,  and  nuggets  of 
gold  from  philosophic  minings.  It  showed  in  every 
column  the  earnest,  diligent  work  of  its  editor. 

Some  of  the  articles  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  pen  in  these 
early  numbers  have  been  reprinted  in  her  book 
"Miscellaneous  Writings,"  which  have  served  as 
the  stepping-stone  to  many  of  her  followers  in  a 
comprehension  of  the  text-book,  "Science  and 
Health."  There  is  no  doubt  that  her  personality 
is  revealed  in  them  in  more  vivid  colors  than  else- 
where. From  time  to  time  in  the  Journal  appeared 
a  poem  from  her  hand,  and  from  these  devout  versi- 
fications were  chosen  some  which  have  become  the 
best  beloved  hymns  of  the  church. 

Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  write  the  entire  contents  of  the 
Journal,  far  from  it ;  there  were  numerous  excellent 
articles  by  her  students  and  co-workers.  But  her 
impress  is  strongly  visible,  and  in  glancing  through 
its  pages  one  can  almost  see  her  at  work  at  her  desk, 
so  direct  and  vital  is  the  editorial  contact.     It  is 


FOUNDATION  WORK  IN   BOSTON  293 

journalism  which  has  the  keen  and  bracing  atmos- 
phere that  was  felt  in  the  old  days  from  such  great 
dailies  as  Horace  Greeley's  New  York  Tribune.  To 
be  sure  it  is  journalism  in  a  limited  sphere  and  with 
its  own  direct  appeal,  but  it  is  of  that  sort  which 
brings  into  a  home  the  highest  sense  of  a  socialized 
life. 

The  founding  of  the  Journal  proved  to  be  one  of 
the  most  effective  moves  Mrs.  Eddy  made  in  the 
establishment  of  Christian  Science.  The  magazine 
could  go  cheaply  where  it  would  cost  a  great  deal 
of  money  to  send  lecturers  and  practitioners.  More- 
over, it  carried  in  a  peculiar  way  the  personal  touch 
of  the  founder  of  Christian  Science.  And  yet  the 
Journal  was  in  no  sense  a  personal  organ.  To  so 
style  it  is  to  confuse  its  aims  with  those  of  a  political 
or  biased  publication.  Its  appeal  was  to  the  spiritual 
sense  of  the  reader. 

The  Journal's  history  is  singular  in  that  it  has 
had  a  series  of  editors  w^ho  fell  away  from  Christian 
Science  into  strange  apostasy.  The  first  associate 
editor,  Arthur  True  Buswell,  was  expelled  from  the 
Christian  Scientist  Association.  His  case  was  a 
peculiar  one  and  difficult  to  explain,  for  he  but 
recently  declared  to  the  author  that  Christian  Science 
in  his  opinion  is  the  vital  truth  of  the  world.  But  he 
also  admitted  that  he  was  attracted  to  certain  apos- 
tate students  who  were  frankly  practising  hypnotism. 

Mrs.  Emma  Hopkins,  wife  of  an  Andover  pro- 
fessor, was  the  second  to  assume  the  position  of 
associate  editor,  her  name  first  appearing  in  the 
Journal  in  February,  1884.     Mrs.  Hopkins  was  a 


294  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

student  of  Mrs.  Eddy.  She  came  to  her  in  trouble 
and  sickness.  She  was  healed,  taught,  and  provided 
with  employment  congenial  to  her  mind.  But  after 
the  most  extravagant  happiness  in  her  new-found 
field  of  usefulness,  she  became  the  victim  of  a  flat- 
tering woman  from  Detroit  who  came  to  study  at 
the  college.  This  woman  was  Mary  H.  Plunkett, 
known  later  in  New  York  as  an  advocate  of  mar- 
riage by  selection  of  soul  aflSnity  without  regard  to 
marriage  and  divorce  laws.  Mrs.  Plunkett  departed 
for  New  Zealand  with  her  aflSnity,  leaving  her  hus- 
band behind  and  was  later  reported  to  have  wearied 
of  her  companion  or  to  have  been  deserted  by  him 
and  to  have  entered  a  religious  order. 

This  woman  succeeded  by  flattery  and  cajolement 
in  turning  the  head  of  Emma  Hopkins.  She  told  her 
she  would  make  her  the  greatest  woman  on  the  planet 
and  succeeded  in  making  the  Andover  professor's 
wife  believe  herself  a  feminine  genius  whose  name 
would  go  down  the  ages  as  another  Hypatia.  It  was 
strange  that  a  student  could  sit  for  two  or  three  hours 
in  a  class-room  under  the  spiritual  teaching  which  led 
all  into  a  rapt  sense  of  the  higher  life ;  and  then  make 
her  way  to  the  oflfice  of  a  recognized  aide  de  camp 
and  there  plot  desertion  and  heresy. 

However,  it  was  so.  Mrs.  Hopkins  left  with  Mrs. 
Plunkett  for  the  West  and  began  teaching  a  system 
of  so-called  metaphysics  under  her  management  in 
Detroit,  Chicago,  and  other  Western  cities.  Her 
teaching  was  a  perversion  of  the  doctrine  she  had 
learned  from  the  founder  of  Christian  Science, 
though  the  perversion  was  at  first  so  subtle  that  it 


FOUNDATION  WORK  IN  BOSTON  295 

was  scarcely  possible  to  detect  it.  It  was,  however, 
the  old  heresy  of  hypnotism  clothing  itself  in  religious 
terms.  Under  the  tutelage  of  the  brilliant  world- 
ling, for  such  Mrs.  Plunkett  was  known  to  have 
been  in  Detroit,  it  is  not  surprising  that  Mrs.  Hop- 
kins found  the  singularly  pure  ideals  of  Mrs.  Eddy 
to  appear  reversed  or  that  she  was  presently  joining 
the  chorus  of  Christian  Science  deserters  in  declaring 
her  selfish  and  tyrannical.  The  two  women  pub- 
lished for  a  time  a  magazine  which  they  called  The 
International  Magazine  of  Christian  Science^  a  de- 
ceptive name  which  caused  considerable  annoyance 
to  the  management  of  the  Journal. 

In  the  fall  of  1885  Mrs.  Sarah  H.  Crosse  became 
assistant  editor  and  remained  in  that  position  until 
she  too  left  Christian  Science  with  a  group  of  other 
students,  some  of  whom  departed  from  the  associa- 
tion in  1888  for  the  very  strange  reason  that  they 
desired  to  study  medicine.  This  disaffection  will  be 
spoken  of  in  another  chapter.  The  Rev.  Frank 
Mason  then  became  editor  of  the  Journal.  He  later 
went  to  New  York  and  founded  a  church  in  Brooklyn 
which  was  non-Christian  Science.  Mr.  William 
G.  Nixon  took  the  business  management  of  the 
Journal  in  1890  and  his  apostasy  will  be  described 
in  connection  with  the  building  of  the  Mother 
Church.  During  that  year  Mr.  Joshua  Bailey  was 
editor  and  the  year  following  Miss  Sarah  J.  Clark  of 
Toledo  acted  in  this  capacity,  —  both  loyal  students. 
Finally,  in  1892,  the  charge  of  the  Journal  was  as- 
sumed by  Judge  Septimus  J.  Hanna,  who  stood  like 
a  rock  and  for  ten  years  edited  it  with  ability  and 


296  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

discretion.  He  was  relieved  of  his  duties  in  1902 
that  he  might  become  active  in  the  lecture  field, 
since  which  time  its  able  editing  has  been  conducted 
by  Mr.  Archibald  McLellan. 

During  all  these  years  the  little  magazine,  in  spite 
of  precarious  storms,  under  the  masterly  superguid- 
ance  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  grew  into  a  powerful  organ  for 
the  church.  In  its  early  days  its  life  was  more  than 
once  threatened  by  such  sinister  means  as  the  pub- 
lication of  a  counterfeit  which  just  escaped  the 
infringement  of  copyright.  But  of  the  use  of  copy- 
rights Mrs.  Eddy  had  been  wisely  educated  by  both 
investigation  and  experience.  It  was  in  1883, 
shortly  after  founding  the  Journal,  that  she  exercised 
her  knowledge  of  the  law  in  this  respect  and  brought 
to  an  end  the  encroachments  of  Edward  J.  Arens 
which  have  been  previously  referred  to. 

Mrs.  Eddy  sued  Arens  for  infringement  of  copy- 
rights by  filing  a  bill  in  equity  in  the  United  States 
Circuit  Court  at  Boston  in  April,  1883.  Arens  filed  an 
answer  in  which  he  alleged  that  the  copyrighted  works 
of  Mrs.  Eddy  Were  not  original  with  her,  but  had 
been  copied  by  her,  or  by  her  direction,  from  manu- 
scripts originally  composed  by  Phineas  Quimby. 
This  extraordinary  statement  he  was  called  upon  to 
substantiate  with  proofs.  He  was  unable  to  present 
the  slightest  evidence,  his  appeals  to  George  Quimby 
of  Belfast,  Maine,  meeting  with  no  response.  Arens 
therefore  gave  notice  to  the  court,  through  his 
counsel,  that  he  would  not  submit  testimony,  that 
he  had  none  to  submit.  Thus  Arens'  defense  fell 
to  the  ground  and  his  failure  to  prove  the  old  and 


FOUNDATION  WORK  IN  BOSTON  297 

worn  statement  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  was  Quim- 
byism  became  a  veritable  vindication  of  her  author- 
ship. The  United  States  Court  issued  a  perpetual 
injunction  against  Arens,  restraining  him  from  print- 
ing, publishing,  selling,  giving  away,  or  distributing 
in  any  manner  his  pirated  works  under  pain  of  a 
fine  of  $10,000.  Furthermore,  his  printed  books  to 
the  number  of  thirty-eight  hundred  were  "put  under 
the  edge  of  the  knife  and  their  unlawful  existence 
destroyed."  The  costs  of  the  suit  which  were  $113 
were  taxed  against  Arens. 

Thus  the  seal  of  the  United  States  Court  was  put 
upon  Mrs.  Eddy's  rights  as  an  author,  and  those 
copyrights  which  Mr.  Eddy  secured  in  her  name 
were  never  again  disputed.  This  signal  triumph 
came  at  a  time  when  Mrs.  Eddy  needed  such  a  per- 
petual guarantee  from  justice  for  her  right  of  way. 
Having  secured  it,  no  one  could  again  with  propriety 
publicly  or  privately  dispute  her  authoritative  claim 
as  discoverer  of  the  science  she  was  establishing. 


CHAPTER    XIX 

THE   WIDE   HORIZON 

THE  modest  appeal  of  the  Christian  Science  Jour- 
nal very  early  began  to  create  results  which  were 
first  apparent  in  the  arrival  of  students  from  the 
West  at  the  Metaphysical  College  in  Boston.  And 
no  sooner  had  the  first  Western  students  returned  to 
their  homes  than  they  began  to  insert  their  cards  as 
practitioners  in  the  Journal,  and  thereafter  letters 
of  inquiry  poured  in  from  Milwaukee  and  Chicago, 
and  Mrs.  Eddy's  morning  mail  began  to  assume 
bulky  proportions.  She  published  a  notice  in  the 
magazine  referring  the  inquirers  to  her  Western 
students,  but  they  were  not  to  be  satisfied  with  any- 
thing but  information  from  headquarters. 

In  the  spring  of  1884  a  pressing  demand  came 
from  Chicago  that  a  teacher  of  Christian  Science  be 
sent  there  —  if  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  would  not  come. 
So  manifold  were  the  demands  on  Mrs.  Eddy's 
time  that  the  idea  of  a  Western  trip  seemed  out  of 
the  question.  Her  correspondence,  her  classes,  her 
Thursday  evening  lectures,  and  Sunday  morning  ser- 
mons, to  say  nothing  of  the  editing  of  the  Journal, 
left  her  no  time  for  the  slightest  recreation  and 
seemed  too  imperative  to  be  laid  down  for  a  fraction 
of  an  hour.  Conducting  a  class  in  Chicago  would 
mean  a  month's  absence.     In  the  emergency  she 


THE  \MDE  HORIZON  299 

looked  about  her  for  a  suitable  and  capable  person 
to  send  out  to  the  Macedonia  of  the  West. 

Among  the  names  that  suggested  themselves  to 
her  was  that  of  Mrs.  Clara  Choate,  a  student  who  had 
occasionally  taken  her  place  in  the  pulpit  and  who 
had  performed  excellent  work  as  a  practitioner  and 
teacher.  But  when  she  broached  the  subject  to  Mrs. 
Choate  she  found  her  unwillino;  to  go.  Mrs.  Choate 
had  a  large  practise  in  Boston,  her  home  ties  seemed 
strong.  She  had  living  with  her  an  aged  parent  and 
her  child  was  in  school.  Mrs.  Eddy  recognized  the 
weight  of  the  objection  and  did  not  urge  the  request 
upon  her,  but  it  became  something  for  discussion 
among  the  students  that  Clara  Choate  was  at  vari- 
ance with  her  teacher.  A  situation  not  exactly  har- 
monious appeared  to  be  arising.  To  dispel  this  Mrs. 
Eddy  called  together  the  students  resident  in  her 
house  for  a  prayerful  consideration  of  the  duties  of 
all  and  their  obligations  to  her  as  faithful  disciples. 
She  foresaw  that  the  work  was  growing  with  such 
giant  strides  that  faithfulness  to  duty  must  be 
exacted  and  yielded  if  the  call  for  missionaries  was 
to  be  answered. 

It  was  not  possible  for  Mrs.  Eddy  to  call  a  con- 
ference in  this  somewhat  over-eager  community  of 
students  without  enormous  significance  attaching 
itself  to  the  occasion.  Realizing  this,  she  requested 
the  students  of  the  house  to  regard  the  meeting  for 
counsel  as  a  private  meeting,  and  directly  the  name 
Private  Meeting  was  coined.  The  Private  Meeting 
society, or  the  "P.  M.,"  as  it  was  immediately  dubbed, 
became  talked  about  among  the  students  outside  the 


SOO  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

house  who  felt  that  something  was  being  planned 
from  which  they  were  to  be  excluded.  The  P.  M. 
society  met  but  twice,  but  so  widely  was  its  existence 
discussed  that  Mrs.  Eddy  was  obliged  four  years 
later  to  write  an  account  of  its  deliberations.  She 
related  that  the  meetings  had  considered  two  topics, 
first.  There  is  no  Animal  Magnetism ;  second,  God 
is  All,  there  is  None  beside  Him.  These  topics  were 
given  out  without  instructions  and  the  students  who 
joined  in  the  meeting  were  expected  to  quietly  treat 
the  disharmony  in  their  midst. 

"If  harm  could  come  from  the  consideration  of 
these  two  topics,"  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote,  "it  was  because 
of  the  misconception  of  those  subjects  in  the  minds 
that  handled  them.  ...  I  dissolved  the  society  and 
we  have  not  met  since."  ^ 

In  April  Mrs.  Eddy  decided  that  she  herself  would 
go  in  response  to  the  increasingly  urgent  call  from 
the  West.  She  handed  over  the  charge  of  the  Jour- 
nal to  Mrs.  Hopkins,  arranged  for  a  suspension  of 
her  Thursday  night  lectures,  and  provided  for  cer- 
tain of  her  students  to  fill  the  pulpit  during  her 
absence.  Class  work  in  the  college  was  likewise  sus- 
pended. The  arrangements  for  the  journey  were 
left  to  Mr.  Frye,  who  was  to  travel  with  her  as  secre- 
tary while  Mrs.  Sarah  Crosse  attended  her  as  a 
companion.  She  spent  a  month  in  Chicago  teaching 
a  class  in  a  private  house  on  the  West  Side.  Double 
parlors  were  taken  for  the  class  work,  beside  the 
suite  of  rooms  engaged  for  her  party. 

Students  came  from  towns  outside  of  Chicago  as 

*  "Miscellaneous  Writings,"  p.  350. 


THE  WIDE  HORIZON  801 

well  as  from  various  parts  of  the  city.  The  parlors 
soon  proved  inconveniently  small,  but  the  work  was 
successful  for  her  teaching  met  with  enthusiasm. 
The  great  Christian  Science  movement  of  the  West 
resulted  from  that  early  visit  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  a  visit 
undertaken  in  such  perplexity  as  this  call,  colliding 
with  her  stress  of  work,  had  brought  about.  But  by 
business  punctiliousness  and  executive  command 
she  had  been  able  to  lay  down  the  duties  which  had 
at  first  seemed  imperative  of  personal  direction. 
Few  of  her  followers  could  then  understand  the 
amazing  fortitude  this  required.  But  the  Western 
field  in  the  y-ears  following  justified  its  demand 
upon  her  time.  Its  response  was  an  abundant 
harvest  of  idealism  in  the  midst  of  vaunting  mate- 
rialism. 

AVhen  she  returned  to  Boston  it  was  with  vision 
rested  by  that  far  horizon  which  was  presently  to 
stretch  to  the  Pacific.  Not  many  months  later  there 
appeared  in  the  Journal  this  notice :  "The  California 
Metaphysical  Institute  affords  an  opportunity  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  for  receiving  a  course  of  instruction  in 
the  rudiments  of  Christian  Science.  Those  desiring 
information  will  address  Ella  Bradshaw,  C.S.B., 
San  Jose,  California."  And  one  month  later  a  simi- 
lar card  advertised  the  establishment  of  the  Illinois 
Christian  Science  Institute,  incorporated,  at  Chicago. 
This  was  but  the  beginning  of  what  rapidly  grew  into 
a  network  of  academies  and  institutes  for  the  dissem- 
ination of  her  doctrine. 

When  the  church  showed  signs  of  outgrowing  its 
Boston  and  New  England  environment  it  became 


S02  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

necessary  to  look  to  the  needs  of  the  field  at  large. 
Mrs.  Eddy  realized  this  need  almost  before  it  was 
apparent,  certainly  before  it  was  obvious  to  other 
eyes  than  hers.  She  had  done  everything  hitherto 
to  promulgate  her  doctrine ;  now  it  was  forced  upon 
her  that  she  must  safeguard  it  from  adulteration  and 
heresy.  In  her  very  first  class  in  Chicago  there  arose 
a  mind  to  lead  a  rebellion.  Mrs.  Ursula  Gestafeld 
was  the  student  who  subsequently  led  a  movement 
of  mental  scientists  in  the  Western  city,  and  her  in- 
novation, counterfeiting  the  teaching  she  had  re- 
ceived, was  but  a  type  of  what  might  and  did  occur 
in  other  localities. 

*'For  many  successive  years,"  Mrs.  Eddy  writes, 
**I  have  endeavored  to  find  new  ways  and  means  for 
the  promotion  and  expansion  of  scientific  Mind- 
healing,  seeking  to  broaden  its  channels,  and,  if 
possible,  to  build  a  hedge  round  about  it,  that 
should  shelter  its  perfections  from  the  contami- 
nating influences  of  those  who  have  a  small  portion 
of  its  letter,  and  less  of  its  Spirit.  At  the  same 
time  I  have  worked  to  provide  a  home  for  every 
true  seeker  and  honest  worker  in  this  vineyard  of 
Truth. 

"To  meet  the  broader  wants  of  humanity,  and 
provide  folds  for  the  sheep  that  were  without  shep- 
herds, I  suggested  to  my  students,  in  1886,  the  pro- 
priety of  forming  a  National  Christian  Scientist 
Association.  This  was  immediately  done,  and 
delegations  from  the  Christian  Scientist  Association 
of  the  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College,  and 
from  branch  associations  in  other  states,  met  in 


THE  WIDE   HORIZON  803 

general  convention  at  New  York  City,  February 
11,  1886."  ' 

Thus  Mrs.  Eddy  describes  how,  from  her  address 
to  the  association  in  Boston  which  held  its  tenth 
annual  meeting  on  January  sixth  of  that  year  at  the 
college  building,  the  action  was  immediately  taken 
to  carry  out  her  views  and  wishes  for  the  associa- 
tions in  other  cities  to  be  drawn  into  a  unity  of  pur- 
pose. On  February  tenth  the  first  regular  meeting  of 
the  national  association  was  held  in  New  York  City 
with  delegates  present  from  Boston  and  Chicago. 
This  national  association  held  four  subsequent 
meetings  and  was  of  tremendous  aid  in  the  formative 
period  of  the  church.  It  held  its  second  meeting  in 
Boston,  its  third  meeting  in  Chicago,  its  fourth  meet- 
ing in  Cleveland,  and  its  final  meeting  in  New  York, 
when  Mrs.  Eddy  requested  its  members  to  adjourn 
for  an  indefinite  period.  She  had  then  other  plans 
for  the  church  which  unfolded  successfully  and 
harmoniously. 

It  was  somewhat  in  consequence  of  the  forming 
of  the  national  association,  somewhat  in  the  gradual 
missionary  work  of  the  Journal,  and  largely  because 
of  the  healing  work  of  the  students,  who  went  out 
from  the  college  month  after  month,  that  the  Chris- 
tian Science  doctrine  spread  to  every  part  of  the 
country.  This  book  is  not  a  history  of  the  Christian 
Science  movement,  hence  it  is  not  within  its  prov- 
ince to  show  how  it  came  about  that  thirty  acade- 
mies were  in  existence  in  1888.  But  so  it  was,  and 
these  schools  were  in  Colorado,  Kansas,  California, 

'  "Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  73. 


304  THE   LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Iowa,  Nebraska,  New  York,  The  District  of  Co- 
lumbia, Pennsylvania,  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  Ohio, 
Missouri,  and  Kentucky. 

This  inspiring  growth  of  adherents  in  all  parts  of 
the  country  did  not  result  instantaneously  or  mirac- 
ulously from  Mrs.  Eddy's  visit  to  Chicago,  but  grew 
with  a  healthy,  sturdy  activity  during  the  four  years 
intervening  between  the  spring  of  1884  and  1888. 
Mrs.  Eddy  was  meantime  faithfully  pursuing  her 
work  at  the  college  on  Columbus  avenue.  Her 
house  became  the  center  of  much  interest  and  was 
for  several  years  a  very  notable  residence  in  Boston. 
It  was  substantial  without  being  pretentious,  its 
arrangement  was  typical  of  modern  city  residences 
and  Mrs.  Eddy  relaxed  somewhat  the  rigid  order  of 
its  furnishings  as  the  months  flew  by  and  her  finan- 
cial resources  were  more  abundant  and  secure. 
On  the  first  floor  was  a  suite  of  parlors  continuous 
with  a  small  reception-room.  These  rooms  could 
all  be  thrown  together  by  opening  sliding  doors,  and 
this  was  done  on  Thursday  nights  when  the  curious 
Boston  literary  folk  came  to  hear  the  new  doctrine. 
For,  had  they  not  read  what  Bronson  Alcott  said  of 
this  new  teacher  of  metaphysics,  and  was  not  Bron- 
son Alcott  a  prophet  to  be  heeded  ?  ^ 

So  it  became  a  common  question  in  the  drawing- 
rooms  of  the  eighties,  "Have  you  met  Mrs.  Eddy, 

'  "The  profound  truths  which  you  announce,  sustained  by  facts  of  the 
immortal  life,  give  to  your  work  the  seal  of  inspiration  —  reaffirm  in  modern 
phrase  the  Christian  revelations.  In  times  hke  these,  so  sunk  in  sensualism, 
I  hail  with  joy  your  voice,  speaking  an  assured  word  for  God  and  immortahty, 
and  my  joy  is  heightened  that  these  words  are  of  woman's  divinings."  —  Bron- 
son Alcott  in  a  letter  to  Mary  Baker  Eddy,  dated  Concord,  Alass.,  and  quoted 
in  the  "Journal." 


THE  WIDE  HORIZON  305 

have  you  heard  her  lecture,  have  you  been  to  her 
college?"  And  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  home  came  many 
distinguished  persons  during  the  years  from  1884  to 
1887.  It  was  not  then  so  difficult  a  matter  to  meet 
the  founder  of  Christian  Science  as  it  became  later. 
One  had  only  to  ring  her  bell  and  state  his  purpose 
of  inquiry  to  a  student  on  duty,  and  as  soon  as  Mrs. 
Eddy  could  lay  aside  the  work  of  the  moment  she 
would  come  to  the  reception-room,  a  kindly  and 
sympathetic  hostess  with  the  rare  charm  of  perfect 
composure  through  which  shone  a  radiant  readiness 
to  believe  the  highest  and  best  and  noblest  of  whom- 
soever presented  himself.  Among  such  callers  and 
inquirers  into  her  teaching  were  Frances  Hodgson 
Burnett  and  Louisa  M.  Alcott.  These  two  women, 
since  crowned  with  literary  laurels  and  embalmed 
for  the  future  with  a  fame  all  their  own,  went  to- 
gether, one  day,  as  was  related  by  a  literary  woman 
of  Boston,  to  meet  Mrs.  Eddy  and  acquaint  them- 
selves with  her  doctrine  from  her  own  lips. 

"Mrs.  Burnett  appeared  to  receive  Christian  Sci- 
ence like  a  birdling  fed,"  said  this  literary  lady,  her- 
self the  editor  of  a  journal.  "But  Miss  Alcott, 
though  her  father  was  a  transcendentalist  and  some 
years  before  had  more  than  half  avowed  a  faith  in 
the  new  system  of  metaphysics,  did  not  take  to  it. 
She  was  of  a  very  practical,  matter-of-fact  mind. 
She  had  had  enough  of  idealism  and  was  determined 
to  keep  her  feet  upon  terra  firma.  But  she  was  im- 
pressed with  Mrs.  Eddy's  personality."  ^ 

If  Miss  Alcott  was  impressed  with  her  personality, 

'  Katherine  Conway,  of  The  Pilot,  in  an  interview. 
20 


306  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

she  certainly  did  not  correctly  apprehend  the  doc- 
trine, as  she  revealed  her  understanding  of  it  in  an 
article  written  for  the  Woman's  Journal,  a  magazine 
devoted  to  woman's  suffrage  and  conducted  by  Miss 
Alice  Stone  Blackwell.  Mrs.  Eddy  replied  to  her 
article  in  the  Christian  Science  Journal,  kindly  point- 
ing out  the  difference  between  hypnosis  and  her  own 
teaching.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Miss  Black- 
well  was  herself  a  contributor  to  the  Christian 
Science  Journal  on  the  subject  of  suffrage  in  April, 
1887. 

In  printing  the  article  on  suffrage  in  her  journal, 
in  frequent  references  to  the  educational  advance- 
ment of  women,  and  in  reviewing  books  on  diverse 
subjects,  Mrs.  Eddy  revealed  a  broad  interest  in 
woman's  work  all  over  the  world.  She  likewise 
maintained  an  active,  alert  interest  in  the  sermons 
and  public  speeches  of  eminent  men,  and  either 
herself  or  through  her  editors  reviewed  philosophic 
treatises  that  came  from  the  press. 

Of  Madame  Blavatsky  and  theosophy  she  had 
somewhat  to  say  and  printed  an  article  which,  while 
it  radically  disagreed  with  theosophic  occultism,  gave 
the  Russian  woman  credit  for  broad  scholarship. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  a  review  of  a  publication  on 
George  Eliot's  essays  and  verse  by  Rose  Elizabeth 
Cleveland,  Mrs.  Eddy  praises  Miss  Cleveland  for 
her  felicity  as  an  editor  and  in  a  genuine  outburst  of 
sincere  appreciation  of  the  great  English  novelist 
declares  her  womanly  and  heroic  with  firm,  un- 
faltering adherence  to  honest  conviction  and  con- 
scientious reasonableness.    "Her  metaphysics  purge 


THE  WIDE  HORIZON  307 

materialism  with  a  single  sentence,"  declares  Mrs. 
Eddy,  quoting  the  sentence  as  follows,  "One  may 
know  all  that  is  to  be  known  about  matter  and  noth- 
ing that  needs  to  be  known  about  man." 

Lilian  Wliiting,  author  of  "The  World  Beauti- 
ful," then  a  Boston  journalist  and  correspondent  for 
Western  papers,  described  a  visit  to  Mrs.  Eddy  in 
an  article  for  the  Ohio  Leader,  dated  July  2,  1885. 
As  Miss  Wliiting  was  not  a  Christian  Scientist  her 
description  is  edifying  as  to  how  Mrs.  Eddy  ap- 
peared to  the  casual  visitor  of  those  days.  Miss 
Wanting  wrote  that  her  note  requesting  permission 
to  call  was  replied  to  with  a  courteous  invitation  to 
do  so  at  an  hour  named.    She  continues : 

"Accordingly  at  eight  o'clock  on  that  evening  I 
rang  the  bell  of  the  large  and  handsome  residence  on 
Columbus  avenue  near  West  Chester  Park,  known 
as  the  Metaphysical  College.  A  maid  ushered  me 
into  a  daintily  furnished  reception-room  where  pic- 
tures and  bric-a-brac  indicated  refinement  and  taste. 
Presently  Mrs.  Eddy  came  in  and  greeted  me  with  a 
manner  that,  while  cordial  and  graceful,  was  also 
something  more,  and  had  in  it  an  indefinable  ele- 
ment of  harmony;  and  a  peace  that  was  not  mere 
repose,  but  more  like  exaltation.  It  was  subtle  and 
indefinable,  however,  and  I  did  not  think  of  it  espe- 
cially at  the  time,  although  I  felt  it.  The  conversa- 
tion touched  lightly  on  current  topics  and  finally 
recurred  to  the  subject  of  metaphysics." 

Describing  her  singular  experience  as  a  result  of 
the  call,  she  says:  "I  remembered  afterwards  how 
extremely   tired   I  was   as   I   walked    wearily   and 


308  THE   LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

languidly  up  the  steps  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  door.  I  came 
away,  as  a  little  child  friend  of  mine  says,  'skipping.' 
I  was  at  least  a  mile  from  my  hotel  and  I  walked 
home  feeling  as  though  I  were  treading  on  air.  My 
sleep  that  night  was  the  rest  of  Elysium.  If  I  had 
been  caught  up  into  paradise,  it  could  hardly  have 
been  a  more  wonderful  renewal."  Miss  Whiting 
continues  as  though  loath  to  cease  the  description 
and,  with  many  adjectives,  dwells  on  her  "exalted 
state,"  the  "marvelous  elasticity  of  mind  and  body," 
and  "an  utterly  unprecedented  buoyancy  and  energy 
which  lasted  days."  She  then  remembers  to  state 
that  all  this  was  the  result  of  a  half  hour's  conver- 
sation on  metaphysics  with  "the  most  famous  mind- 
curer  of  the  day." 

Such  were  some  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  experiences  with 
the  sisterhood  of  writers  who  now  rendered  grave  or 
excited  appreciation  and  anon  intellectual  dispar- 
agement. But  whether  they  were  critical  or  effusive 
of  praise,  Mrs.  Eddy  never  turned  one  of  them  away, 
or  refused  an  audience  to  any  inquirer.  To  doctors, 
clergymen,  and  philosophers  she  gave  intellectual 
attention  and  while  she  lived  in  the  world  of  affairs, 
she  lived  in  it  broadly,  deeply,  generously,  acting 
her  own  part  as  a  leader  wisely,  but  yielding  cour- 
teous consideration  to  all  other  leaders  in  whatever 
movement  and  without  regard  to  sex. 

The  increasing  number  of  her  students,  their 
teaching  and  healing  in  the  wider  field,  now  opening 
up  for  the  establishment  of  the  new  church,  created 
an  ever-increasing  demand  for  her  text-book,  "Sci- 
ence and  Health."     The  book  had   been  through 


THE  WIDE  HORIZON  309 

fifteen  editions,  and  there  were  therefore  fifteen  thou- 
sand copies  in  circulation,  but  letters  came  to  her 
from  the  West,  complaining  that  the  book  was  not 
obtainable.  It  was  necessary  to  put  forth  a  fresh 
edition,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  determined  to  revise  the  book 
and  give  to  it  the  benefit  of  her  experience  in  eluci- 
dating many  of  its  statements. 

On  her  return  from  the  visit  to  Chicago  she  did 
not  take  up  the  active  editorship  of  the  Journal,  but 
contented  herself  with  supervising  its  columns,  ap- 
plying herself  in  all  spare  moments  to  the  rewriting  of 
"Science  and  Health."  For  many  months  she 
worked  on  the  manuscript  and  in  August,  1885,  she 
had  prepared  a  completed  first  draft.  This  man- 
uscript contained  all  the  essential  matter  of  the 
earlier  editions,  —  as  a  comparison  will  show,  — 
but  it  had  been  amplified  and  clarified  and  given 
illuminating  touches  throughout  by  Mrs.  Eddy's 
higher  unfoldment  in  metaphysical  understanding. 

Having  completed  the  first  draft  of  her  work, 
Mrs.  Eddy  engaged  the  Rev.  James  Henry  Wiggin  to 
read  the  manuscript  with  a  view  to  indexing  it  and 
also  to  preparing  it  for  the  printer  with  the  privilege 
of  making  proper  technical  emendations  such  as  are 
usually  given  all  manuscripts  by  the  editors  of  a  pub- 
lishing house.  Mr.  Wiggin  was  a  man  whom  many 
Boston  authors  had  employed  for  such  work,  and, 
because  of  his  reputation  for  honor  and  ability,  she  be- 
lieved that  her  book  might  be  entrusted  to  his  hands 
without  fear  that  he  would  overstep  his  privilege 
and  tamper  with  its  subject  matter  or  context.  Such 
proved  to  be  the  character  of  his  workmanship. 


810  THE   LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Mr.  Wiggin  was  a  prominent  figure  in  Boston 
literary  circles  during  the  eighties  and  nineties.  He 
was  a  retired  Unitarian  clergyman  and  for  a  time 
an  editor  for  the  University  Press.  While  he  was,  in 
a  sense,  a  man  of  the  world,  that  is  to  say,  a  social 
fraternizer  with  the  literary,  musical,  and  artistic 
Bohemia  of  two  continents,  —  for  he  traveled  some- 
what in  Europe,  —  he  was  a  man  of  character  and 
enjoyed  the  friendship  of  men  highly  esteemed.  John 
Wilson  and  Edward  Everett  Hale  were  his  friends. 

It  is  difiScult  to  understand  why  after  he  has 
passed  to  another  world  the  claim  is  made  in  his 
name  that  he  practically  rewrote  "Science  and 
Health."  Mr.  Wiggin  himself  never  made  such  a 
claim  in  any  writings  which  he  left  and  it  may  be 
sincerely  doubted  if  he  would  have  considered  it 
honorable  to  strike  so  vitally  at  the  integrity  of  any 
writer  for  whom  he  had  worked  as  to  cast  a  doubt 
upon  the  product  of  his  mind.  To  even  make  the 
claim  of  polishing  and  giving  style  to  a  writer's  ex- 
pression is,  as  it  were,  to  assert  that  he  has  some- 
thing to  say  and  does  not  know  how  to  say  it.  The 
fact  that  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  had  gone  through  fifteen 
editions  before  Mr.  Wiggin  came  on  the  scene  proved 
that  she  both  had  something  to  say  and  knew  how 
to  say  it. 

Mr.  Wiggin  used  the  pseudonym  Phare  Pleigh  in 
writing  for  the  Christian  Science  Journal,  and  it  is 
doubtful  if  Mr.  Wiggin  would  think  it  fair  play  to 
print  his  personal  letters  after  his  death.  He  was  a 
friend  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  though  never  a  convert  to 
Christian  Science,  and  being  a  man  of  the  world,  he 


THE  WIDE  HORIZON  311 

expressed  himself  on  the  subject  of  the  new  reHgion 
at  various  times  in  various  ways  according  to  his 
mood  and  the  character  of  the  friend  he  was  with. 
But  what  Mr.  Wiggin  thought  as  to  Mrs.  Eddy's 
authorship  he  expressed  in  an  extensive  review  pub- 
hshed  in  1886  entitled  ''Christian  Science  and  the 
Bible."    In  this  review  the  following  passage  occurs : 

"Now  in  this  century  there  has  arisen  a  sect  called 
Christian  Scientists.  Their  founder  and  corner- 
stone is  Mrs.  Mary  Baker  Glover  Eddy.  Born  in 
Concord,  New  Hampshire,  and  afterwards  a  resi- 
dent of  Sanbornton  and  Lynn,  she  has  been  for 
several  years  a  resident  of  Boston,  where  she  is 
pastor  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist.  She  is 
also  president  of  the  Massachusetts  Metaphysical 
College,  a  school  of  the  prophets  whose  students  are 
taught  Mrs.  Eddy's  views  as  they  are  set  forth  in 
'Science  and  Health,'  a  book  which  she  first  pub- 
lished ten  years  ago,  and  which  has  since  passed 
through  many  editions,  though  she  practised  and 
taught  the  Science  years  before  the  book  was  printed 
or  the  college  established." 

Through  a  period  of  five  years  Mr.  Wiggin  wrote 
many  articles  for  the  Christian  Science  Journal  and 
he  used  his  brain  and  talents  in  its  defense,  taking 
up  the  cudgels  against  clergymen  in  all  parts  of  the 
country  who  essayed  in  sermon  or  magazine  article 
to  ridicule  the  new  faith.  Is  it  necessary  to  assume 
that  he  was  acting  the  part  of  a  hypocrite  or  merely 
enjoying  a  tilt  with  professional  theologians  under 
the  cover  of  his  pseudonym  like  a  masked  knight  at  a 
tournament  ? 


S12  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

It  is  possible  that  he  was  more  strongly  attracted 
to  Christian  Science  than  some  of  his  worldly  asso- 
ciates knew.  In  one  of  his  articles  in  the  Journal, 
"Heard  at  the  Clubs,"  he  tells  how  a  political  dis- 
cussion in  which  he  was  interested  was  interrupted 
by  a  reference  to  Christian  Science  and  how  an 
editor,  an  actor,  and  others  testified  to  its  benefits  to 
the  astonishment  of  a  noted  literary  divine  from 
Great  Britain.  He  declared,  '*the  talk  everywhere 
turns  on  Christian  Science  and  whoever  has  met  the 
founder  has  been  impressed  with  her  integrity  of 
purpose."  His  various  articles  may  be  found  in  vol- 
umes three  and  four  of  the  Journal. 

Men  of  great  parts  have  elsewhere  and  often  been 
attracted  to  a  cause,  served  it  for  a  time  earnestly 
and  faithfully,  and  then  fallen  away  from  it.  But  in 
such  instances  it  is  seldom  asserted  that  they  gave  it 
its  life  blood  and  then  grew  ashamed  of  it  and  ridi- 
culed it.  Such  men  do  not  give  life  blood  to  any- 
thing. They  may  be  clever  and  gifted,  but  they  are 
never  the  inspiration  of  a  movement. 

After  Mr.  Wiggin  had  handled  Mrs.  Eddy's  man- 
uscript for  the  sixteenth  edition  of  her  book  this  an- 
nouncement was  made  in  the  Journal  for  January, 
1886:  "Attention  is  called  to  this  volume.  It  is 
worth  the  notice  not  only  of  Christian  Scientists, 
but  of  all  who  are  interested  in  the  progress  of  truth. 
It  is  from  the  University  Press,  Cambridge,  and  this 
is  a  guaranty  for  its  typographical  appearance.  All 
the  material  of  other  editions  is  herein  retained, 
but  all  of  it  has  been  carefully  revised  and  rewritten 
by  Mrs.   Eddy,   and  greatly  improved.     The  ar- 


THE  WIDE  HORIZON  313 

rangement  of  the  chapters  has  been  changed.  One 
new  chapter  has  been  added,  on  the  Apocalypse, 
giving  an  exposition  of  the  bearings  on  Christian 
Science  of  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Revelation,  to 
which  it  is  believed  by  Mrs.  Eddy  to  particularly 
relate.  A  special  feature  is  a  full  index,  prepared 
especially  for  this  edition  by  a  competent  gentleman. 
In  these  days  no  important  book  has  a  right  to  come 
before  the  public  without  a  proper  index." 

For  about  five  years  Mr.  Wiggin  gave  Mrs.  Eddy 
the  benefit  of  his  literary  training  in  reading  the 
proofs  of  her  successive  editions  and  also  the  proofs 
of  the  Journal.  She  paid  him  fittingly  for  his  work 
and  cherished  a  kindly  regard  for  him.  It  is  regret- 
table that  a  revelation  of  his  personal  vanity  as  shown 
in  private  correspondence  should  have  been  given 
to  the  world  in  recent  pamphlets  —  since  vanity  and 
egotism  are  common  weaknesses  shared  in  some 
degree  by  all  mankind.  In  a  playful  protest  against 
his  learned  profundities  exhibited  on  one  occasion 
in  a  philosophic  review  printed  in  the  Journal,  Mrs. 
Eddy  wrote:  "Now  Phare  Pleigh  evidently  means 
more  than  'hands  off.'  A  live  lexicographer  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  tongue  might  add  to  the  definition  the 
'laying  on  of  hands'  as  well.  Whatever  his  nom  de 
plume  means,  an  acquaintance  with  the  author  jus- 
tifies one  in  the  conclusion  that  he  is  a  power  in 
criticism,  a  big  protest  against  injustice,  —  but  the 
best  may  be  mistaken."  ^ 

'  It  was  a  great  mistake  to  say  that  I  employed  Reverend  James  Hemy 
Wiggin  to  correct  my  diction.  It  was  for  no  such  purpose.  I  engaged  Mr. 
Wiggin  so  as  to  avail  myself  of  his  criticisms  of  my  statement  of  Christian 
Science,  which  criticisms  would  enable  me  to  explain  more  cleariy  the  points 


314  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

With  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  gentleness  of  characteri- 
zation and  generosity  of  appreciation,  Mr.  Wiggin 
may  fall  into  his  rightful  place  in  the  story  of  her 
life  as  an  aid  and  not  a  marplot,  and  his  memory 
need  not  be  stigmatized  with  the  reproach  of  lit- 
erary caddishness. 

During  the  summer  of  1888  Mrs.  Eddy  spent  a 
few  weeks  in  Fabyans,  New  Hampshire,  at  the  White 
Mountain  House.  Her  student,  Mrs.  Janette  E. 
Weller,  traveled  with  her.  She  gave  an  informal 
address  to  the  summer  guests  who  gathered  from 
various  resorts  in  the  mountains  when  they  learned 
that  she  was  sojourning  at  the  hotel.  She  after- 
ward withdrew  with  her  secretary  and  traveling 
companion  to  the  farm  of  Ira  O.  Knapp  for  ab- 
solute retirement.  She  had  just  closed  an  eventful 
year  in  which  she  had  formulated  the  subject  matter 

that  might  seem  ambiguous  to  the  reader.  IVIr.  Calvin  A.  Frye  copied  my 
writings,  and  he  will  tell  you  that  Mr.  Wiggin  left  my  diction  quite  out  of  the 
question,  sometimes  saying,  "I  would  n't  express  it  that  way."  He  often  dis- 
sented from  what  I  had  written,  but  I  quieted  him  by  quoting  corroborative 
texts  of  Scripture. 

In  Christian  Science  my  diction  has  been  called  original.  The  Hberty  that 
I  have  taken  with  capitahzation  in  order  to  express  the  "new  tongue"  has  well 
nigh  constituted  a  new  style  of  language.  In  almost  every  case  where  Mr. 
Wiggin  added  words,  I  have  erased  them  in  my  revisions. 

Mr.  Wiggin  was  not  my  proof-reader  for  my  book,  "Miscellaneous  Writ- 
ings," and  for  only  two  of  my  books.  I  especially  employed  him  on  "Science 
and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scriptiu-es  "  because  at  that  date  some  critics  de- 
clared that  my  book  was  as  ungrammatical  as  it  was  misleading.  I  availed 
myself  of  the  name  of  the  former  proof-reader  for  the  University  Press,  Cam- 
bridge, to  defend  my  grammatical  construction,  and  confidently  awaited  the 
years  to  declare  the  moral  and  spiritual  effect  upon  the  age  of  "Science  and 
Health  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures. "...  I  hold  the  late  Mr.  Wiggin  in  lov- 
ing and  grateful  memory  for  his  high-principled  character  and  well-equipped 
scholarship.  Maky  Baker  Eddy. 

Pleasant  View,  Concord,  New  Hampshire,  Nov.  20,  1906. 

—  Statement  printed  in  the  "New  York  American,"  November  22,  1906. 


THE   WIDE   HORIZON  S15 

of  a  new  book,  written  during  the  winter  and  put 
forth  in  May,  1888,  changed  her  residence,  and  paid 
an  eventful  visit  to  Chicago. 

"Unity  of  Good  and  Unreahty  of  Evil"  was  ad- 
vertised in  these  words  in  the  Journal:  "This  little 
book  is  at  last  ready  for  the  public.  Next  to  'Science 
and  Health'  it  is  the  most  important  work  she  has 
written."  And  it  remains  to-day  the  most  important 
because  of  its  absolute  metaphysics.  Her  entire 
list  of  publications  in  that  year  included  "Science 
and  Health,"  "Unity  of  Good,"  "Christian  Heal- 
ing," "People's  Idea  of  God,"  "Christian  Science, 
No  and  Yes,"  "Mind  Healing,  an  Historical  Sketch," 
and  "Rudiments  and  Rules  of  Divine  Science." 

It  was  becoming  well-nigh  impossible  for  Mrs. 
Eddy  to  have  even  an  hour  of  her  waking  time  to 
herself  for  the  purpose  of  meditation,  deliberation, 
or  consideration  of  the  larger  plans  that  were  now 
imperative.  How  "Unity  of  Good"  was  written  is 
a  mystery,  for  while  she  lived  at  the  college  whoever 
sought  her  had  but  to  knock  on  her  door.  The  large 
chamber  over  the  parlors  at  the  college  was  more 
of  a  library,  a  study,  an  office,  than  a  quiet  chamber 
for  rest.  Her  door  was  thronged  from  early  morning 
until  late  at  night,  and  the  uselessness  of  such  dis- 
traction was  that  the  most  insistent  besiegers  were 
those  with  the  least  important  business. 

For  such  reasons,  and  because  the  field  actually 
demanded  her  wisest  deliberations,  Mrs.  Eddy  took 
steps  to  remove  from  the  college  building.  During 
the  holiday  season  of  1887  she  left  Columbus  avenue 
to  reside   in   a   house   she  had  purchased  at   385 


316  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Commonwealth  avenue.  This  was  the  first  house  she 
had  owned  since  the  Broad  street  house  in  Lynn,  for 
she  leased  the  college  building  at  a  rental  of  one 
thousand  dollars  annually.  Her  new  home  was  on 
the  outskirts  of  Boston,  overlooking  from  the  rear 
in  those  days  the  Charles  River  and  fronting  on 
a  boulevard  parkway  where  stands  to-day  the  superb 
Anne  Whitney  statue  of  Lief  Ericsson.  The  house 
included  twenty  beautiful  rooms.  It  was  fitted  up 
suitably,  though  not  extravagantly  and  Mrs.  Eddy 
took  with  her  for  an  immediate  household  a  few  of 
her  students  and  her  secretary.  Her  life  was  fixed 
by  a  very  punctilious  order;  she  wrote  at  certain 
hours,  received  at  certain  hours,  attended  the  college 
to  teach  her  classes,  and  began  to  take  the  daily 
drive  which  was  to  be  the  only  recreation  she  in- 
sisted upon  from  that  time  to  the  present. 

The  West  was  calling  for  her  again.  Letters  which 
poured  in  told  her  that  she  must  go  out  to  the  field 
once  more.  The  National  Christian  Scientist  Asso- 
ciation was  to  meet  in  Chicago  in  1888,  and  Mrs. 
Eddy  determined  to  deal  with  all  her  students'  needs 
and  wants  at  that  focal  point  and  meet  them  for  the 
purpose  of  satisfying  their  insistent  claims  upon  her 
attention.  In  order  that  the  occasion  might  be  a 
gratifying  one  to  the  entire  field,  and  that  the  church 
might  be  renewed  and  refreshed  for  its  pioneer  work, 
Mrs.  Eddy  issued  a  call  for  this  convention  which 
was  printed  in  the  Journal  for  May.    She  said : 

Christian  Scientists :  For  Christ's  and  for  hu- 
manity's sake,  gather  together,  meet  en  masse,  at 
the  annual  session  of  the  National  Christian  Science 


THE  WIDE   HORIZON  317 

Association.  Be  of  one  mind  in  one  place  and  God 
will  pour  you  out  a  blessing  such  as  you  never  before 
received.  He  who  dwelleth  in  eternal  light  is  bigger 
than  the  shadow,  and  will  guard  and  guide  His  own. 
Let  no  consideration  bend  or  outweigh  your  pur- 
pose to  be  in  Chicago  on  June  the  13th. 

This  call  was  not  without  its  effect.  Hundreds 
journeyed  to  Chicago  to  attend  what  was  anticipated 
as  a  "  week's  jubilee  of  spirit."  It  was  the  first  great 
gathering  of  Christian  Scientists  from  many  parts  of 
the  United  States.  The  knowledge  had  gone  abroad 
that  Mrs.  Eddy  would  herself  attend  the  convention, 
and  this  served  to  draw  together  not  only  the  stud- 
ents who  had  graduated  from  her  classes,  but  also 
hundreds  who  had  been  healed  by  her  students  and 
who  wished  to  know  more  of  her  philosophy.  Mrs. 
Eddy  made  the  journey  accompanied  by  Captain  and 
Mrs.  Eastaman,  her  secretary  Calvin  Frye,  and  Dr. 
E.  J.  Foster,  a  young  physician  who  had  studied 
w^ith  her  and  whom  she  afterwards  legally  adopted 
as  her  son. 

The  national  association  held  its  business  meet- 
ings in  the  First  Methodist  church  of  Chicago,  then 
situated  on  Washington  and  Clark  streets.  On  the 
second  day  the  convention  assembled  at  Central 
Music  Hall  for  a  program  of  addresses  to  be  deliv- 
ered by  practising  students.  The  doors  being 
opened  to  the  public,  much  to  the  astonishment  of 
the  eight  hundred  delegates,  there  assembled  an 
audience  of  about  four  thousand,  among  whom  were 
many  prominent  Chicagoans,  for  the  newspapers 
had  not  failed  to  advertise  the  fact  that  the  Boston 


318  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

prophetess,  as  they  chose  to  call  her,  was  in  the  city. 
All  unaware  of  the  curiosity  her  coming  had  aroused, 
Mrs.  Eddy  attended  the  meeting,  expecting  to  occupy 
a  seat  upon  the  platform  among  her  students,  but 
to  take  no  part  in  the  program.  Her  purpose  was 
to  greet  and  cheer  her  students. 

Destiny  was  not  to  have  it  so.  The  Rev.  George 
B.  Day,  pastor  of  the  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scien- 
tist, in  Chicago,  had  decided  to  introduce  her  as  the 
speaker  of  the  day  and  on  his  own  authority  had  in- 
serted a  notice  in  the  papers  that  she  would  make  an 
address.  As  he  led  Mrs.  Eddy  through  the  ante- 
room to  escort  her  to  the  stage,  he  acquainted  her 
with  his  purpose.  His  fear  that  she  would  refuse  to 
accede  had  led  him  to  delay  telling  her  until  the  last 
moment  before  she  stepped  upon  the  platform.  A 
student  much  beloved  of  Mrs.  Eddy  who  was  stand- 
ing near  the  door,  saw  her  protest  with  an  outward 
sweep  of  her  hand  and  a  slow  negative  shake  of  the 
head,  and  declare  with  emphasis  that  she  was  in  no 
way  prepared  to  speak.  The  clergyman,  all  excite- 
ment and  nervousness,  persisted  and  Mrs.  Eddy 
halted  for  a  moment  on  the  threshold  of  the  stage 
and  lifted  her  eyes  as  though  for  inspiration  and 
guidance.  A  newspaper  report  of  what  followed 
says: 

Without  a  subject  selected  and  without  notes 
she  entered  the  platform  when,  as  by  some  j)recon- 
certed  plan,  the  whole  vast  audience  rose  to  its  feet 
and  welcomed  her.  She  walked  to  the  center  of 
the  stage  and  after  being  introduced  recited  the 
first  verse  of  the  ninety-first  psalm  and  in  the  ad- 


THE  WIDE  HORIZON  319 

dress  which  followed  her  voice  filled  that  immense 
auditorium  so  that  those  most  remote  from  her  could 
hear  distinctly. 

The  address  thus  delivered  without  preparation, 
outline,  or  text  has  been  pronounced  by  many  of 
her  students  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  statements  of 
Christian  Science  ever  made  from  a  rostrum.  Like 
Lincoln's  great  unreported  speech,  delivered  in 
Bloomington,  it  came  upon  the  delegates  as  a  sur- 
prise, and  so  spellbound  were  the  hearers  that  the 
very  reporters  forgot  to  take  notes.  It  was  inade- 
quately reported,  and  though  the  substance  of  it  was 
sent  out  to  the  papers,  and  was  printed  in  the  Journal^ 
and  the  report  was  subsequently  reprinted  in  "IVIis- 
cellaneous  Writings"  under  the  subject.  Science  and 
the  Senses,  it  is  certain  that  something  of  the  spirit 
of  her  utterances  was  lost  in  the  transcription,  for 
the  amazing  effect  of  her  address  cannot  entirely  be 
understood  from  reading  it  to-day. 

When  she  ceased  speaking,  the  scenes  which  im- 
mediately followed  were  intensely  dramatic,  extraor- 
dinary, unprecedented.  In  the  audience  were  many 
who  had  been  healed  from  grievous  illnesses  by 
reading  her  book,  and  scarcely  any  of  her  hearers 
but  had  known  of  marvelous  cures ;  hence  the  audi- 
ence was  anticipating  a  miraculous  wave  of  health 
and  it  received  it  at  flood  tide.  Whatever  had  been 
on  the  program  was  forgotten  for  the  time,  swept 
aside  by  an  impetuous  forward  rush  of  that  audience 
to  the  platform,  indifferent  to  the  chairman's  at- 
tempts to  get  a  hearing. 

It  was  well  Mrs.  Eddy  was  elevated  above  the 


320  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

throng  or  she  would  have  been  borne  down  by  it. 
As  it  was,  men  leaped  to  the  stage  and  assisted 
women  to  follow.  They  wanted  to  take  her  hand,  to 
tell  her  of  wonderful  healings,  to  touch  her  dress  if 
nothing  more.  A  babble  of  rejoicing  broke  forth 
above  which  came  the  cries  of  many  who  were 
crowded  to  the  rear,  beseeching  attention  to  them- 
selves. A  mother  who  failed  to  get  near  held  high  her 
babe,  an  old  woman  held  up  palsied  hands,  crying, 
'*Help  me!'*  Some  persons  declared  the  address 
had  healed  them  spontaneously.  Men  and  women 
wept  together. 

So  carried  away  by  the  tide  of  emotion  as  to  neg- 
lect details,  the  newspaper  correspondent  who  re- 
ported these  events  for  a  Boston  paper  declared 
simply  that  many  were  healed  there  and  then.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  the  cases  verified  were  actually  eleven. 
The  Boston  Traveler  reporter  said:  "As  the  people 
thronged  about  Mrs.  Eddy  with  blessings  and 
thanks,  meekly  and  almost  silently  she  received  their 
homage  until  she  was  led  away  from  the  place,  the 
throng  blocking  her  way  from  the  door  to  the 
carriage." 

While  in  Chicago  Mrs.  Eddy  lived  at  the  Palmer 
House,  and  access  to  her  being  easily  gained,  impor- 
tunate callers  besieged  her  doors.  It  was  no  part  of 
her  plan  to  hold  a  public  reception  in  Chicago,  or  in 
fact  to  do  anything  of  a  public  nature.  Her  amaze- 
ment at  the  publicity  thrust  upon  her  left  her  without 
choice,  and  how  to  satisfy  the  sudden  demand  for 
personal  greeting  was  a  difficult  question  to  decide. 
In  the  evening  of  the  day  on  which  she  experienced 


THE  WIDE  HORIZON  321 

such  an  ovation,  she  decided  to  go  to  the  parlors  for 
a  short  time  to  satisfy  the  persistent  callers. 

Learning  of  her  decision,  the  hotel  hurriedly  deco- 
rated the  rooms  with  a  profusion  of  flowers,  giving  a 
festive  and  brilliant  appearance  for  an  impromptu 
reception.  This  was  to  prove  a  singular  function. 
Men  and  women  of  wealth  and  fashion  crowded  and 
elbow^ed  persons  from  the  humblest  walks  of  life. 
The  parlors,  the  corridors,  the  stairways  were 
thronged.  When  Mrs.  Eddy  came  from  her  private 
suite  and  entered  the  drawing-room,  the  assemblage 
almost  immediately  lost  its  head  in  one  concerted, 
intense  desire  to  touch  the  hand  of  the  woman  who 
had  so  eloquently  preached  God's  love  as  to  make  the 
sick  well  at  the  sound  of  her  voice.  They  pressed 
forward  upon  her  regardless  of  each  other.  Silks  and 
laces  were  torn,  flowers  crushed,  and  jewels  lost. 
Mrs.  Eddy  drew  back  from  the  pressure  of  humanity 
and  as  she  looked  upon  the  flushed  faces  she  seemed 
to  shrink  within  herself,  as  if  asking,  "What  came 
you  here  to  see  ?"  She  turned  to  her  secretary  and 
companion  for  assistance  and  almost  immediately 
withdrew  by  a  side  door.  When  the  company 
learned  that  she  had  withdrawn  they  gradually  and 
disappointedly  dispersed. 

From  such  scenes  Mrs.  Eddy  had  always  shrunk 
with  peculiar  sensitiveness.  As  she  had  told  her 
students  when  first  coming  to  Boston,  she  now 
reiterated  to  her  immediate  helpers,  "Christian 
Science  is  not  forwarded  by  these  methods."  A  year 
later  in  Steinway  Hall,  New  York  City,  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  a  similar  experience.     There  the  audience  was 

21 


322  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

requested  to  file  by  her  across  the  stage,  and  obedience 
to  the  request  was  enforced  by  the  ushers.  In  the 
confusion  of  the  reception,  however,  strange  scenes 
occurred.  Faithful  students  were  startled  to  see 
Mrs.  Mary  H.  Plunkett  press  forward,  take  Mrs. 
Eddy's  hand,  and  leaning  forward,  dramatically  kiss 
her  cheek.  Thus  she  publicly  associated  herself  with 
the  teacher  whose  work  she  had  misrepresented  and 
whose  trust  she  had  betrayed. 

Public  functions  and  such  scenes  of  worldly  am- 
bition had  much  to  do  with  a  resolve  which  was 
growing  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  mind  to  withdraw  entirely 
from  public  life  that  the  adulation  of  her  personality 
might  cease  and  the  truth  she  taught  have  oppor- 
tunity to  make  its  way  through  the  work  of  her 
students. 


CHAPTER    XX 

WITHDRAWAL   FROM   THE   WORLD 

WHILE  the  "jubilee  of  spirit"  was  being  cele- 
brated in  Chicago  during  June,  1888,  a  quite 
different  order  of  mental  activity  was  causing  fo- 
mentation in  the  Christian  Scientist  Association  at 
Boston.  Some  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  students  had  become 
inoculated  with  the  theories  of  Mr.  Julius  Dresser 
and  Dr.  Warren  F.  Evans.  Both  of  these  men  had 
been  patients  of  Quimby  during  the  early  sixties 
and  both  undertook  to  establish  systems  of  healing. 
Both  men  printed  and  issued  books  on  mental  sci- 
ence. They  attracted  a  small  following  which  in 
later  days  came  to  be  known  as  the  New  Thought 
Movement. 

It  was  not  so  much  the  teaching  of  these  writers 
on  mental  suggestion  which  attracted  Mrs.  Eddy's 
students,  —  for  those  who  had  passed  through  her 
classes  well  knew  that  mental  suggestion  and  Chris- 
tian Science  w^ere  as  divergent  as  a  chimeric  dream 
and  a  scientific  discovery,  —  but  rather  was  it  the 
thought  that  they  might  carry  Christian  Science 
itself  outside  the  walls  of  its  citadel  and  become 
writers  and  teachers  and  leaders  among  the  philis- 
tines.  Christian  Science  within  the  fold  was  too 
stringent  in  its  demands.  Not  satisfied  with  manna, 
ihey  would  return  to  the  flesh-pots  of  Egypt.    The 


324  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

meat  desired  was  intellectual  divertissement;  not 
only  that,  they  would  handle  the  things  of  God  with 
more  careless  ease  and  roll  the  jewels  of  the  temple 
upon  the  street  for  the  delectation  of  the  curious. 

Thus  it  was  that  a  group  of  rebels  had  coalesced 
within  the  Christian  Scientist  Association.  They 
were  not  without  examples  for  their  dereliction. 
The  group  of  students  who  departed  from  the  church 
in  Lynn  had  preceded  them  by  about  ten  years  and 
gone  their  ways  into  the  inviting  world  of  freedom. 
Mrs.  Plunkett,  Mrs.  Hopkins,  Mrs.  Gestafeld  had 
emulated  Kennedy,  Spofford,  and  Arens.  But  these 
examples  were  not  edifying  as  solutions  of  the  prob- 
lem of  finding  happiness  by  returning  to  intellectual 
speculation  after  avowing  allegiance  to  a  spiritual 
ideal.  Therefore  this  new  group  of  Christian 
Science  deserters  would  find  a  more  plausible  reason 
for  their  conduct. 

In  order  that  they  might  manage  their  departure 
without  the  shame  of  expulsion  they  took  advan- 
tage of  the  absence  of  Mrs.  Eddy  and  the  secretary, 
William  B.  Johnson,  to  possess  themselves  of  the 
Association's  books.  These  they  placed  in  a  lawyer's 
hands  and  notified  Mrs.  Eddy  on  her  return  from 
Chicago  that  the  books  would  not  be  surrendered 
until  they  had  received  an  honorable  dismissal  from 
the  Association.  Expulsion,  they  felt,  would  be 
dishonorable,  carrying  with  it  the  implication  of 
un  worthiness. 

While  the  unmannerly  abstraction  of  the  Associ- 
ation's books  was  the  modus  operandi  of  their  re- 
bellion, the  casus  belli  announced  was  the  Corner 


WITHDRAWAL  FROM  THE  WORLD  325 

case.  In  the  spring  of  1888  Mrs.  Abby  H.  Corner, 
a  student  and  member  of  the  Association,  had 
attended  her  daughter  in  childbirth  and  the  ac- 
couchement terminated  fatally  to  both  mother  and 
child.  Mrs.  Corner  was  prosecuted  for  malpractise 
by  the  state  but  was  acquitted  when  the  facts  were 
brought  out  that  the  cause  of  death  was  one  which 
a  medical  practitioner  could  not  have  averted, 
namely  hemorrhage.  Certain  members  of  the 
Association  disagreed  with  Mrs.  Eddy  in  respect 
to  the  propriety  of  certain  proceedings  relative  to 
Mrs.  Corner's  defense. 

Although  Mrs.  Eddy  did  not  approve  of  her 
students  taking  charge  of  the  surgical  part  of  ob- 
stetrical work  unless  they  were  surgeons  or  mid- 
wives  duly  qualified  by  the  state  requirements,  she 
did  not  desert  her  student  in  time  of  trouble,  and 
although  the  Association  paid  Mrs.  Corner's  ex- 
penditures for  defense,  —  a  matter  of  two  hundred 
dollars,  —  the  disagreement  over  the  Corner  case 
was  what  the  restless  element  in  the  Boston  church 
needed  for  a  plausible  excuse  to  seek  the  world 
and  its  freedom,  and  to  desert  the  pure  ideality  of 
the  fundamental  statement  of  Christian  Science 
found  in  the  scientific  statement  of  being.  Mrs. 
Eddy  did  not  engage  in  any  spiritual  wrestling  with 
these  rebellious  students,  though  she  did  ask  them 
to  come  to  her  in  Christian  love  and  state  their 
grievances  to  her  personally.  As  none  of  them  did 
so,  they  were  eventually  dismissed,  thirty-six  mem- 
bers going  out  of  a  congregation  of  about  two 
hundred. 


326  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Although  their  tactics  had  been  successful  in 
securing  the  so-called  letters  of  dismissal,  after  their 
expulsion  the  seceding  students  declared  they  had 
considered  a  plan  for  expelling  Mrs.  Eddy  from  her 
own  church  and  the  Christian  Scientist  Association. 
However,  the  points  held  by  Mrs.  Eddy  on  this 
occasion  and  with  which  the  belligerent  students 
disagreed  are  to-day  reckoned  among  the  common- 
sense  practises  of  Christian  Science,  and  this  inci- 
dent is  an  example  of  the  numerous  instances  where 
the  short-sightedness  of  the  pupil  has  attempted  to 
brush  aside  the  more  mature  and  accurate  judgment 
of  the  teacher,  and  where  Mrs.  Eddy  proved  her 
worth  as  a  leader  of  the  Christian  Science  move- 
ment. With  such  deep-boring  desire  to  explode 
the  citadel  of  Christian  Science  faith  and  blow  into 
the  heavens  its  foundation  stones,  the  insurrection- 
ists would  have  accomplished  destruction  had  it 
been  in  human  power  to  do  so,  and  the  dust  of  cen- 
turies might  again  have  settled  over  the  spiritual 
revelation,  as  Spofford  had  once  foretold  would  be 
the  result  if  Christian  Science  were  demolished. 

"Under  Divine  Providence  there  can  be  no  acci- 
dents," Mrs.  Eddy  says  in  ''Science  and  Health," 
and  the  rebellion  in  the  Boston  church  in  1888  was 
no  more  a  fortuitous  or  calamitous  occurrence 
than  the  rebellion  in  Lynn  which  resulted  in  the 
transplanting  of  the  work  to  Boston,  the  establish- 
ment of  the  college  and  Journal,  and  the  creation 
of  the  National  Christian  Scientist  Association. 
Mrs.  Eddy  had  safeguarded  the  text-book  of 
Christian  Science  by  copyrights,  and  in  the  months 


WITHDRAWAL  FROM  THE  WORLD  327 

in  which  she  waited  for  the  culmination  of  the  con- 
spiracy in  the  Boston  church  she  turned  over  in  her 
mind  the  many-sided  problem  of  safeguarding  the 
organization.  She  was  once  more  submitting  her- 
self for  divine  guidance,  and  in  the  sacred  secrecy 
of  such  communion  was  evolving  a  plan  by  which 
security  should  be  attained  against  explosive 
schism. 

Now  the  first  step  toward  the  masterly  solution  of 
this  great  problem  of  organization  which  confronted 
her  was  a  loosening  of  all  the  bonds  which  appar- 
ently held  her  students  together.  With  absolute 
reliance  upon  the  underlying,  irrevocable  compact 
of  spirit,  which  constitutes  the  "church  invisible," 
Mrs.  Eddy  first  closed  the  Metaphysical  College 
and  then  a  few  months  later  dissolved  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Boston  church. 

She  had  continued  teaching  classes  at  the  college 
during  the  summer  of  1889,  but  on  October  29  of 
that  year  she  closed  its  doors.  Its  dissolution  was 
accomplished  after  due  deliberation  and  earnest 
discussion  by  a  vote  of  the  board  of  directors  of  the 
college  corporation.  In  announcing  its  purpose  the 
board  presented  to  the  public  resolutions  in  which 
it  thanked  the  state  for  its  charter,  the  public  for  its 
patronage,  and  declared  its  everlasting  gratitude  to 
its  president  for  her  great  and  noble  work.  The 
teaching  was  henceforth  to  be  done  by  the  qualified 
students. 

In  "Retrospection  and  Introspection"  Mrs.  Eddy 
has  given  her  clearly  defined  argument  for  this  pro- 
cedure  and   it   is   an   unmistakable    disclaimer   of 


328  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

delight  in  personal  success.  She  says:  "The  appre- 
hension of  what  has  been,  and  must  be,  the  final 
outcome  of  material  organization,  which  wars  with 
Love's  spiritual  compact,  caused  me  to  dread  the 
unprecedented  popularity  of  my  College.  Students 
from  all  over  our  continent  and  from  Europe  were 
flooding  the  school.  At  this  time  there  were  over 
three  hundred  applications  from  persons  desiring 
to  enter  the  college,  and  applicants  were  rapidly 
increasing.  Example  had  shown  the  "dangers  aris- 
ing from  being  placed  on  earthly  pinnacles,  and 
Christian  Science  shuns  whatever  involves  material 
means  for  the  promotion  of  spiritual  ends."  ^ 

It  was  the  first  way-mark  of  withdrawal.  The 
dangers  arising  from  personal  adulation  were  in  a 
thousand  ways  made  apparent  to  Mrs.  Eddy  and 
the  more  she  requested  her  students  to  look  away 
from  her  and  fix  their  eyes  on  truth,  the  more  she 
was  made  to  feel  that  danger  of  apotheosis  which 
desired  to  set  her  on  "earthly  pinnacles."  Ap- 
pealing to  Csesar  seemed  to  be  a  fixed  concept  of  a 
human  sort  among  the  students  which  required  the 
most  thorough-going  denial.  As  the  Romans  would 
have  made  Nero  a  god,  so  the  students  seemed  bent 
on  making  their  spiritual  leader  a  Csesar  of  egotism, 
a  peculiar  reversal  in  human  deduction.  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  obliged  to  publish  in  the  Journal  the  following 
notice : 

I  shall  not  be  consulted  verbally  or  through  letters 
as  to  the  following:  Whose  advertisement  shall  or 
shall  not  appear  in  the  Journal. 

^  "Retrospection  and  Introspection,"  p.  67. 


WITHDRAWAL  FROM  THE  WORLD  329 

The  matter  that  should  be  pubHshed  in  the 
Journal. 

On  marriage,  divorce,  or  family  affairs  of  any 
kind. 

On  the  choice  of  pastors  for  churches. 

On  difficulties  if  there  should  be  any  between 
students  of  Christian  Science. 

On  who  shall  be  admitted  as  members  or  dropped 
from  the  membership  of  Christian  Science  churches. 

On  disease,  or  the  treatment  of  the  sick. 

But  I  shall  love  all  mankind  and  work  for  their 
welfare. 

Each  and  every  one  of  these  disclaimers  of  ab- 
solutism   were    sincere;     they    were   avowals    of   a 
steadfast  purpose  to  refuse  to  ascend  a  dictator's 
throne.    If  it  had  for  a  time  seemed  wise  for  her  to 
direct  and  guide  the  affairs  of  the  church  and  asso- 
ciation,  experience  had   shown   her  in   no   unmis- 
takable way  the  misconstruction  which  wilful  human 
perversion  may  place   upon  such   direction.     The 
rebellious  students  of  that  year  had  announced  as 
one  of  their  grievances  the  opinion  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  too  arbitrary  in  the  conduct  of  the  Christian 
Scientist  Association.     Such   a   statement   she    re- 
ceived as  a  premonitory  signal.     It  was  a  mailed 
hand  threatening  Love's  dominion.     Between  those 
who  would  set  her  up  and  those  who  would  drag 
her  down,  the  founder  of  Christian  Science  stood 
serene  in  the  consciousness  of  spiritual  insight.    She 
would  not  desert  her  post  or  be  driven  from  it  until 
she   had   led   her  students  into   the   ways   of  self- 
direction. 

But   withdrawal    was    not   desertion,    and    with- 


330  THE   LIFE   OF  MARY   BAKER  EDDY 

drawal  more  and  more  occupied  her  thoughts  as  a 
means  to  the  end  of  establishing  the  impersonal 
guidance  of  the  church.  Certain  personal  and 
family  matters  crowded  upon  her  for  attention. 
She  who  had  given  so  much  to  the  world  must  con- 
sider somewhat  her  own  affairs  before  taking  up 
the  problem,  the  great  problem  of  the  "church 
visible." 

During  the  difficulties  of  1888  which  may  be  real- 
ized as  the  clamoring  of  three  hundred  disappointed 
students  who  would  have  Mrs.  Eddy  to  teach  them 
and  no  other  and  the  half  hundred  rebellious  stud- 
ents who  would  rend  if  possible  the  local  church, 
George  Glover,  Mrs.  Eddy's  long-wandering  son 
was  present  in  Boston  with  his  wife  and  children. 
Mrs.  Eddy  had  seen  her  son  but  once  before  since 
he  had  been  separated  from  her  in  his  infancy. 
Having  located  him  in  1879  in  Minnesota,  she  had 
sent  him  a  telegram  requesting  him  to  come  to  her. 
He  was  then  a  man  thirty-five  years  of  age.  He 
came  to  Boston  and  visited  her  and  Mr.  Eddy  at  the 
home  of  the  Choates  where  she  was  then  residing 
temporarily. 

While  on  his  brief  visit  to  Boston,  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  studied  the  character  of  her  long-alienated  son 
with  the  eyes  of  maternal  solicitude,  and  also  the 
detached  sense  of  independent  individuality.  Was 
this  boy  a  Baker  or  a  Glover  ?  Moreover,  was  he  a 
teachable  man.?  In  rehearsing  his  experiences  on 
this  visit  to  his  mother  in  1879,  Glover  is  said  to 
have  since  related  to  a  newspaper  correspondent 
that  for  some  strange  reason  his  mother  would  not 


WITHDRAWAL  FROM  THE  WORLD  331 

hear  of  his  returning  to  his  Western  home  and  that 
he  stayed  on  for  several  weeks  with  her  while  she 
endeavored  to  teach  him  Christian  Science,  —  which 
he  modestly  acknowledged  he  "made  a  mess  of." 
But  having  heard  considerable  about  Richard  Ken- 
nedy and  his  misuse  of  the  science  of  Mind,  and 
feeling  that  Kennedy  was  harassing  his  mother  with 
false  reports  of  her  teaching.  Glover  one  day,  with- 
out revealing  his  plans  to  his  mother,  visited  Ken- 
nedy's offices  and,  according  to  Glover's  alleged 
statement,  threatened  him  with  a  revolver.  Ac- 
cording to  the  newspaper  which  quotes  Mr.  Glover 
he  declared  that  he  told  Kennedy  he  knew  of  his 
"black  art  tricks"  to  ruin  his  mother  and  he  meant 
to  stop  him. 

"Mother  seemed  very  much  surprised  when  I 
told  her  what  I  had  done,"  George  Glover  is  said 
to  have  stated  in  March,  1907,  referring  to  the  visit 
of  1879.  "But  she  did  not  scold  me  and  in  a  few 
days  she  consented  to  let  me  return  home  to  the 
West  and  to  my  wife  and  little  son." 

How  clearly  George  Glover  had  shown  to  his 
mother  after  weeks  of  effort  to  educate  him,  to 
teach  him  Christian  Science,  the  ungovernable, 
untameable  spirit  of  the  man  of  the  plains,  no  one 
but  himself  had  ever  told,  if  indeed  he  did  relate 
his  experiences  on  his  visit  East  as  quoted.  Richard 
Kennedy  absolutely  denies  the  occurrence.  But 
whether  George  Glover  did  bully  him  or  did  not, 
and  whether  or  not  he  recounted  a  fiction  to  his 
mother  and  later  to  the  press,  his  nature  is  shown 
to  have   been   alien   to  her  nature,   to    have  been 


332  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

impervious  to  her  doctrine.  Destiny  still  parted 
them  with  an  insurmountable  barrier.  Hungering  for 
the  plains,  restless  for  the  saddle,  his  leathern  holster 
bulging  beneath  his  coat,  his  hand  nervously  seeking 
his  hip  at  the  slightest  altercation,  what  could  a 
woman  of  sixty  do  with  a  man  of  middle  age,  settled 
in  his  habits  ?  Here  was  no  longer  the  problem  of 
mother  and  son.  Authority  and  obedience  were  as 
a  dead  letter.  Time  had  set  its  seal  upon  him  as  a 
man  and  an  individual. 

Departing  for  the  West,  he  went  over  the  great 
divide  in  human  concepts  for  another  ten  years,  but 
in  1887  sent  his  mother  a  characteristically  casual 
note  stating  that  he  intended  coming  East  to  pay 
her  a  visit.  In  a  letter  which  Glover  says  he  re- 
ceived from  his  mother  dated  October  31,  1887,  she 
replied  to  her  son  in  words  pregnant  of  her  appre- 
hensions with  regard  to  his  character.  "I  must 
have  quiet  in  my  home,"  she  wrote,  '*and  it  will  not 
be  pleasant  for  you  in  Boston."  She  told  him  that 
the  Choates  were  no  longer  with  her.  "You  are 
not  what  I  had  hoped  to  find  you,"  she  continued, 
"and  I  cannot  have  you  come.  .  .  .  The  world, 
the  flesh,  and  evil  I  am  at  war  with.  .  .  .  Boston  is 
the  last  place  in  the  world  for  you  or  your  family. 
When  I  retire  into  private  life,  then  I  can  receive 
you  if  you  are  reformed,  but  not  otherwise.  I  say 
this  to  you,  not  to  any  one  else.  I  would  not  injure 
you  any  more  than  myself." 

But  this  letter  which  speaks  volumes  of  maternal 
regret  appears  to  have  had  no  effect  in  deterring 
George  Glover  from  seeking  the  mother  whom  he 


WITHDRAWAL  FROM  THE  WORLD  333 

had  disregarded  for  years.  She  was  now  nearly 
seventy  years  of  age,  spiritualized  by  years  of  self- 
abnegation  and  religious  devotion.  He  was  in  his 
forty-fifth  year  and  hardened  in  the  ways  of  the 
flesh.  He  presented  himself  with  the  confidence 
of  filial  relationship.  Yes,  he  was  her  son,  and 
she  received  him  as  such.  She  provided  for  him  a 
residence  in  Chelsea.  With  his  children  he  visited 
her  at  her  home  and  he  attended  the  church  and 
was  cordially  received  by  its  members.  Mrs.  Eddy 
appeared  upon  the  platform  with  the  children  around 
her  and  lovingly  presented  them  to  the  world  and 
her  church. 

After  several  months  of  enjoying  himself  in  the 
reflected  glory  of  his  mother,  George  Glover  with 
his  family  again  returned  to  the  West.  He  had 
taken  no  step  to  come  to  his  mother's  standard  of  life 
and  she  had  not  urged  him  or  repelled  him.  But 
she  had  studied  him  and  reflected  on  the  joy  it  would 
have  been  to  her  to  have  been  able  to  find  in  him 
a  son  fitted  to  carry  out  certain  demands  of  her  work. 
Such  reflection  carried  with  it  regret  and  finally 
resulted  in  an  effort  to  find  among  her  students  one 
who  could  bear  to  her  the  relation  of  a  dutiful, 
obedient,  and  worthy  son,  one  who  would  perform 
the  acts  of  filial  respect  and  service  that  would  in- 
sure her  the  nucleus  of  a  spiritual  household.  In 
the  enjoyment  of  such  a  home,  quiet  domesticity 
would  take  its  natural  course  and  as  the  years  re- 
volved she  might  withdraw  to  the  heights  of  con- 
templation, putting  off  one  by  one  the  claims  of 
the  world. 


334  THE   LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Pursuing  this  idea  in  November,  1888,  Mrs.  Eddy 
legally  adopted  Dr.  Ebenezer  Johnson  Foster  in 
the  Suffolk  County  (Massachusetts)  Probate  Court, 
stating  as  her  reasons  in  the  proceedings  before 
Judge  McKim  that  he  was  associated  with  her  in 
business,  home  life,  and  life  work,  and  that  she 
needed  his  interested  care  and  relationship.  The 
plea  was  granted  and  Dr.  Foster  added  Eddy  to 
his  name  and  became  her  son.  This  effort  toward 
parental  relationship  was  not  a  success,  and  may 
be  briefly  set  forth. 

Dr.  Foster  came  from  a  small  town  in  Vermont. 
He  was  a  graduate  of  the  Hahneman  Medical  Col- 
lege in  Philadelphia  and  for  two  years  a  member  of 
the  clinics  of  the  Blockley  Hospital  and  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Hospital.  He  was  later  a  member  of 
the  Vermont  State  Homeopathic  Medical  Society. 
Holding  diplomas  from  both  the  regular  and  the 
homeopathic  schools  of  medicine,  he  was  attracted 
to  Christian  Science  by  the  healing  of  a  close  friend 
who  had  been  an  old  army  comrade.  He  came  to 
Boston  an  enthusiastic  inquirer  in  the  fall  of  1887 
and  took  a  course  of  lessons  under  Mrs.  Eddy's 
instruction  at  the  college.  Before  its  close  he  taught 
one  term  in  the  college.  Previous  to  his  adoption  he 
resided  in  her  Commonwealth  avenue  home  to- 
gether with  other  students.  He  was  one  of  that 
group  of  intimate  students  among  whom  were  Julia 
Bartlett,  Calvin  Frye,  Captain  and  Mrs.  Eastaman, 
William  B.  Johnson,  and  Augusta  Stetson. 

Dr.  Foster-Eddy  was  an  agreeable  and  accom- 
plished man  of  forty  with  a  clear,  well-trained  mind 


WITHDRAWAL  FROM  THE  WORLD  335 

and  the  enthusiasm  for  work  which  was  so  neces- 
sary in  the  multitude  of  duties  pressing  upon  all. 
He  remained  with  Mrs.  Eddy  until  1896.  In  1892 
she  made  him  her  publisher  when  she  removed 
William  G.  Nixon  from  that  office.  Dr.  Foster- 
Eddy  then  lived  at  the  Commonwealth  avenue  house, 
though  Mrs.  Eddy  was  residing  in  Concord.  Away 
from  her  personal  influence,  he  was  not  as  attentive 
to  business  as  the  requirements  of  his  office  de- 
manded, and  he  indulged  in  certain  fopperies  which 
brought  down  upon  him  scathing  criticism  from 
other  students,  not  entirely  unwarranted.  It  be- 
came necessary  for  Mrs.  Eddy  to  remove  him  from 
the  publishing  business  in  the  spring  of  1896,  when 
she  made  Joseph  Armstrong,  a  former  banker  of 
Kansas,  her  publisher. 

Mrs.  Eddy  then  directed  Dr.  Foster-Eddy  to  go 
to  Philadelphia  to  carry  out  certain  plans  in  the 
work  of  the  church.  She  gave  him  a  letter  to  present 
to  the  Philadelphia  church  and  minute  instructions, 
but  he  did  not  carry  out  her  directions.  As  her  per- 
sonal agent  he  misrepresented  her  and  became 
persona  non  grata  in  that  city.  The  Philadelphia 
church  wrote  a  letter  concerning  him  to  Mrs.  Eddy 
and  she  recalled  him,  but  he  did  not  return  to  her 
at  once.  He  first  went  to  Washington  on  a  pleasure 
trip  and  finally  presented  himself  at  Pleasant  View, 
bursting  with  a  story  of  his  fancied  wrongs.  Mrs. 
Eddy  received  him  in  the  library  and  heard  him  out ; 
then  she  left  him  in  silence.  He  quitted  the  house 
and  returned  to  Boston  where  she  sent  him  a  letter 
of  admonition,  kindly  worded,  but  unmistakable  in 


336  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

its  rebuke.  Instead  of  returning  to  Pleasant  View, 
Dr.  Foster-Eddy  went  West,  traveled  for  a  long 
time,  and  eventually  returned  to  his  old  home  in 
Vermont.  Mrs.  Eddy  made  no  charge  against  him, 
nor  did  she  ask  for  an  explanation.  She  did  not, 
however,  erase  him  from  her  memory  for  she  yet 
speaks  of  him  as  her  son. 

It  was  after  the  adoption  of  Dr.  Foster  that  Mrs. 
Eddy  began  looking  about  for  a  permanent  home 
removed  from  Boston.  In  the  early  spring  of  1889 
Dr.  Foster  persuaded  her  to  go  to  Barre,  Vermont, 
with  a  view  to  spending  the  summer  in  the  moun- 
tains. He  preceded  her  there  and  engaged  a  fur- 
nished house,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  with  Miss  Martha 
Morgan,  who  was  then  her  housekeeper,  and  Mr. 
Frye  followed  when  arrangements  were  completed. 
She  did  not,  however,  remain  long,  for  the  surround- 
ings were  not  desirable.  Dr.  Foster  returned  to 
Boston  and  selected  a  house  in  Roslindale,  a  suburb 
of  Boston.  This  house  Mrs.  Eddy  occupied  for  a 
short  time;  but  this  situation,  too,  proved  not  de- 
sirable. For  as  Barre  was  too  remote  from  the 
center  of  affairs  which  she  must  still  direct,  Roslin- 
dale was  too  accessible  to  the  interruptions  of 
visitors. 

While  on  her  way  to  and  from  Barre,  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  passed  through  her  native  town.  Concord,  New 
Hampshire.  Its  beauty  and  its  dignity  appealed  to 
her  so  powerfully  that  she  sojourned  for  a  time  there 
while  the  Roslindale  property  was  being  negoti- 
ated for.  When  Roslindale  failed  as  a  satisfactory 
habitation,   her   agreeable   experience   in    Concord 


WITHDRAWAL  FROM  THE  WORLD  337 

returned  to  her  mind  as  an  argument  for  its  selec- 
tion as  an  abiding  place.  But  she  would  not  again 
make  a  hasty  decision  or  permit  others  to  do  so  for 
her  in  so  important  a  matter  as  a  permanent  home. 
So  she  decided  to  live  for  a  time  in  a  furnished  house 
in  Concord  and  look  about  her  for  the  desirable 
home. 

It  was  in  the  fall  of  1889  that  she  retired  to  Con- 
cord, carrying  out  her  purpose  of  withdrawal  from 
the  personal  direction  of  the  students  in  Boston. 
In  Concord  she  resided  at  62  North  State  street  for 
a  few  months.  While  living  there  she  took  her  daily 
drives  in  and  around  the  little  New  Hampshire 
capital,  so  dear  to  her  because  of  her  earliest  recol- 
lections of  childhood.  From  one  of  those  drives  she 
returned  by  the  road  (now,  through  her  gift  to  the 
city,  a  macadamized  avenue)  which  stretches  along 
the  crest  of  a  valley  to  the  Southwest  from  the  city. 
Halting  her  carriage  about  three  quarters  of  a  mile 
outside  the  capital,  she  looked  out  over  the  valley 
in  contemplation.  Mrs.  Eddy  saw  here  the  vision 
of  a  home  remote  and  yet  accessible.  She  saw  Bow, 
her  birthplace,  nestling  in  the  ridge  of  blue  hills 
aw^ay  to  the  East  and  she  discerned  the  hazy  outline 
of  Monadnock,  far  to  the  Southwest,  rearing  its 
august  and  lonely  head.  Below  the  pleasant  upland 
upon  which  she  stood  lay  all  the  broad  valley,  like 
the  Valley  of  Decision,  which  her  years  had  spanned, 
and  doubtless  she  saw  with  the  eloquent  prophet 
of  old  "multitudes,  multitudes  in  that  Valley  of 
Decision." 

What  Mrs.  Eddy  beheld  in  vision  she  brought  to 


22 


338  THE   LIFE   OF  MARY   BAKER  EDDY 

pass.  Land  was  bought  uniting  two  estates  and 
the  old  house  encumbering  the  spot  where  she 
stood  when  she  made  her  determination  was  moved 
back  and  under  the  direction  of  her  student,  Mr.  Ira 
O.  Knapp,  rebuilt  into  a  modest,  modern  country 
home.  This  place  Mrs.  Eddy  named  Pleasant  View, 
and  there  she  resided  from  1892  until  1908,  a  period 
of  about  fifteen  years.  Those  who  have  never  seen 
this  charming,  idyllic  spot  can  picture  it  by  imagin- 
ing a  broad  sweep  of  green  acres,  sloping  gently  to 
a  little  lake,  a  ribbon  of  river,  and  a  line  of  hills 
away  to  the  East.  The  house  standing  back  from 
the  road,  surrounded  by  a  well  kept  lawn,  was  given 
the  picturesque  addition  of  a  small  tower  and  broad 
Eastern  veranda,  with  an  unpretentious  portico  over 
the  front  entrance. 

Within  the  soft  gray-green  walls  of  the  simple 
frame  dwelling  a  shining  order,  peace,  and  dignity 
came  to  prevail.  Mrs.  Laura  Sargent,  a  student  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  first  class  in  Chicago,  came  from  her 
home  in  Wisconsin  to  reside  with  Mrs.  Eddy  as 
companion,  and  has  remained  with  her  ever  since. 
And  to  her  loving  attendance  much  of  the  quiet 
harmony  of  that  home  may  be  attributed.  A  gentle 
veil  of  seclusion  descended  over  Pleasant  View, 
securing  to  it  a  quiet  and  dignity  necessary  to  the 
detached  life  of  contemplation,  a  life  wherein  things 
temporal  may  stand  forth  in  their  relation  to  things 
eternal  as  types  of  spiritual  significance.  It  was  the 
fife  of  brooding  love,  a  life  of  the  highest  rarity  in 
human  experience,  wherein  heaven  leans  and  kisses 
earth.    Here  Mrs.  Eddy  spent  the  years  of  perfecting 


lu  x; 


cs  .2 


—         3     4J 


i-i      =c    o 


„    c 


WITHDRAWAL  FROM  THE  WORLD  339 

the  type  of  organization  under  which  she  conceived 
the  spiritual  compact  of  her  church  to  rest. 

It  was  not  without  action,  however,  that  she 
brought  about  the  firm  foundation  of  a  Christian 
Science  church  which  should  be  unassailable  as  the 
rock  of  her  doctrine.  Mrs.  Eddy  had  been  clearing 
the  way  before  her  for  an  activity  which  was  to 
eventuate  in  the  building  of  the  Mother  Church  in 
Boston,  not  simply  as  a  structure  of  stone,  but  as  a 
structure  of  legal  compact  from  which  should  flow 
order  in  the  conduct  of  church  affairs.  Her  first 
step  in  this  work  was  to  request  that  the  local  Boston 
church  dissolve  its  organization.  After  this  was 
done  in  obedience  to  her  request  she  published  in 
the  Journal  for  February,  1890,  the  following 
notice : 

The  dissolution  of  the  visible  organization  of  the 
church  is  the  sequence  and  complement  of  that 
of  the  college  corporation  and  association.  The 
college  disappeared  that  the  spirit  of  Christ  might 
have  freer  course  among  its  students  and  all  who 
come  into  the  understanding  of  Divine  Science. 
The  bonds  of  the  church  were  thrown  away  so  that 
its  members  might  assemble  themselves  together 
to  "provoke  one  another  to  good  works"  in  the  bond 
only  of  love. 

With  the  National  Christian  Scientist  Associa- 
tion adjourned  in  New  York  this  same  year,  the 
bonds  of  organization  were  entirely  loosed  and  what 
the  future  held  in  store  for  them  Christian  Scien- 
tists were  unable  to  discern.  They  had  now  to  live 
the  life  and  perform  the  works  which  a  living  faith 


340  THE   LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

demanded  of  them,  and  to  trust  that  their  teacher, 
withdrawn  from  the  clash  of  petty  affairs,  was  work- 
ing out  a  plan  by  which  they  might  manifest  to  the 
world  a  perfect  unity  of  purpose.  And  she  was 
working  out  such  a  plan,  —  meantime  by  letters  and 
communications  in  the  Journal  encouraging  her 
students  all  over  the  country  to  organize  local 
churches.  Thus  detached  organization  was  pro- 
gressing with  wonderful  strides  throughout  the 
country. 

In  Boston  the  church  was  homeless,  but  still  hold- 
ing meetings,  which  now  convened  in  Chickering 
Hall.  This  church  had  endeavored  to  purchase  a 
lot  of  ground  in  Falmouth  street  as  early  as  1886 
with  the  idea  of  erecting  an  edifice  thereon,  but 
through  various  dissensions  and  rebellions  it  had 
been  unable  to  complete  its  purchase  so  that  in  1889 
a  heavy  mortgage  still  hung  over  its  head.  In  De- 
cember, 1889,  Mrs.  Eddy  personally  satisfied  this 
mortgage  and  gave  the  lot  in  trust  to  her  student, 
Ira  O.  Knapp.  Mr.  Knapp  reconveyed  the  property 
to  three  trustees,  namely,  Alfred  Lang,  Marcellus 
Monroe,  and  William  G.  Nixon.  The  purpose  of 
forming  this  trusteeship  was  that  donations  might 
be  received  for  a  building  fund  from  loving  students 
throughout  the  field. 

The  building  fund  had  been  growing  slowly  but 
surely ;  now  a  hitch  in  the  mind  of  one  of  the  trus- 
tees brought  it  to  a  sudden  stop.  It  was  William 
G.  Nixon,  Mrs.  Eddy's  publisher,  who  could  not  be 
satisfied  with  the  ultimate  purpose  of  the  trustee- 
ship, and  demanded  that  the  title  of  the  land  be 


WITHDRAWAL  FROM  THE  WORLD  341 

scrutinized  by  legal  eyes.  A  paroxysm  of  doubt 
among  his  fellow  trustees  followed  with  the  result 
that  all  surrendered  their  trusteeship  and  returned 
to  the  donors  the  funds  which  had  accrued  for  the 
church  building. 

Undismayed  by  this  action  Mrs.  Eddy  rose  to  the 
demands  of  the  situation.  She  employed  an  attorney 
to  search  the  statutes  of  Massachusetts  for  a  law  by 
which  her  contemplated  gift  to  the  church  might  be 
made  good  and  valid.  Her  lawyer  very  shortly  put 
his  finger  upon  the  necessary  legal  enactment,  a 
statute  seldom  resorted  to,  which  seemed  a  provi- 
dential decree  for  this  emergency.  This  statute 
provided  that  trustees  might  be  deemed  a  body  cor- 
porate for  the  purpose  of  holding  grants  and  dona- 
tions without  the  formal  organization  of  a  church. 
So  on  September  1,  1892,  Mrs.  Eddy  again  conveyed 
her  gift  of  ground,  which  was  now  valued  at  twenty 
thousand  dollars,  to  four  new  trustees  who  were  Ira 
O.  Knapp,  William  B.  Johnson,  Joseph  S.  Easta- 
man,  and  Stephen  A.  Chase.  These  trustees  pledged 
themselves  to  erect  upon  this  lot  a  church  building. 

That  no  doubt  might  exist  in  the  minds  of  her 
students  throughout  the  United  States  and  elsewhere 
that  her  purpose  was  entirely  unselfish  and  that  it 
was  for  the  ends  to  which  they  all  looked,  Mrs.  Eddy 
now  counseled  a  reorganization  of  the  Boston 
church  as  a  Mother  Church,  which  should  draw 
its  membership  from  Christian  Science  churches 
throughout  the  world.  Thus  by  her  advice  twelve 
students  came  together  and  perfected  such  an  or- 
ganization  which    so    satisfied    the   wishes    of   her 


342  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

students  that  over  fifteen  hundred  members  united 
before  the  first  annual  meeting,  held  in  October, 
1893. 

Now  the  building  fund  began  to  grow  as  it  had 
not  done  before.  The  donations  returned  by  the 
doubting  Thomas  were  sent  back  doubled  and 
trebled.  In  order  to  secure  the  more  rapid  com- 
pletion of  the  Mother  Church  edifice  forty  students 
each  contributed  one  thousand  dollars  in  1894. 
Mrs.  Eddy  privately  summoned  her  student,  Joseph 
Armstrong,  to  Pleasant  View,  placing  in  his  hands 
the  power  of  decision  in  vexatious  questions  that 
might  arise,  and  through  his  able,  loyal,  patient 
direction  the  original  Mother  Church  was  com- 
pleted in  every  perfection  of  detail  on  the  night  of 
December  30,  1894. 

Thus  was  the  great  labor  of  her  mind  during  the 
first  five  years  of  her  retirement  brought  to  a  satis- 
factory conclusion.  The  little  local  church,  which 
in  1888  had  threatened  to  eject  the  founder  of  the 
Christian  Science  movement,  was  no  more;  it  had 
been  dissolved  and  swallowed  up  in  that  larger 
organization  which,  in  the  provisos  of  its  trust  deed, 
pledged  itself  to  teach  nothing  within  the  church 
walls  which  should  not  be  in  strict  harmony  with 
the  doctrine  and  practise  of  Christian  Science  as 
set  forth  by  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy  in  "Science  and 
Health  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures."  The  trustees, 
moreover,  now  constituted  the  board  of  directors 
of  the  Mother  Church  and  they  elected  Mrs.  Eddy 
pastor  emeritus.  The  church  was  dedicated  Janu- 
ary 5,  1895. 


WITHDRAWAL  FROM  THE  WORLD  343 

So  had  Mrs.  Eddy  ably  directed  her  students  by 
love  that  was  wise  and  counsel  that  was  firm  in  the 
midst  of  dereliction,  stubborn  opposition,  revolt, 
and  schism  to  that  state  of  mind  and  that  perfection 
of  organization  that  they  found  themselves  self- 
operative  under  provisos  which  would  prevent  their 
straying  from  her  teaching.  And  in  doing  this  she 
succeeded  in  withdrawing  her  own  personality  from 
the  clashing  world  of  events,  leaving  only  Truth  en- 
throned for  ruler.  What  wonder  that  with  one 
accord  the  church  bestowed  upon  her  the  loving 
title  of  Leader ! 


CHAPTER     XXI 

THE   LEADER   IN   RETIREMENT 

ALTHOUGH  Mrs.  Eddy  had  withdrawn  from 
active  participation  in  the  work  of  her  church, 
her  withdrawal  was  in  the  nature  of  retirement 
and  not  seclusion.  She  did  not  go  into  a  selfish 
privacy  at  Pleasant  View,  but  remained  actively  en- 
gaged in  many  duties  which  her  position  required 
of  her.  She  no  longer  edited  the  Journal,  preached 
from  a  pulpit,  or  taught  regular  classes,  but  she  con- 
tinued to  contribute  articles  to  the  Journal,  to  send 
annual  messages  to  her  church,  and  to  receive  those 
who  had  the  right  to  her  counsel.  She  made  several 
visits  to  Boston  in  the  interest  of  the  Mother  Church 
and  received  annually  for  several  years  large  num- 
bers of  communicants  from  many  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. She  prepared  articles  for  the  press  on  request, 
and,  besides  revising  her  book  "Science  and  Health" 
from  year  to  year,  gathered  together  and  edited  some 
of  her  scattered  articles  which  she  published  under 
the  title  "Miscellaneous  Writings." 

Life  at  Pleasant  View  fell  into  that  regularity 
which  facilitates  the  highest  order  of  usefulness.  Mrs. 
Eddy  had  living  with  her  a  quite  numerous  house- 
hold. Mrs.  Laura  Sargent,  her  companion,  took 
active  charge  of  the  household  regime,  and  her  sweet- 
tempered   direction   of  the   servants,   her  ceaseless 


THE  LEADER  IN  RETIREMENT  345 

inspection  of  the  domestic  machinery,  made  affairs 
move  with  pleasant  exactness.  Miss  Kate  Shannon 
of  Montreal  was  another  inmate  of  the  household 
who  devoted  special  attention  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  per- 
sonal wants.  Mrs.  Pamelia  J.  Leonard,  of  Brooklyn, 
spent  many  months  of  several  years  at  Pleasant  View 
assisting  in  the  work  of  church  advancement,  work 
which  Mrs.  Eddy  never  neglects.  Mr.  Frye  con- 
tinued in  his  faithful  service  of  steward  and  secretary 
combined,  and  his  duties  were  of  the  most  diverse 
nature,  varying  from  ordering  supplies,  keeping  ac- 
counts, and  transmitting  Mrs.  Eddy's  directions  to 
her  gardeners  and  coachman,  to  assisting  in  handling 
her  heavy  mail. 

If  Mr.  Frye  and  Mrs.  Sargent  have  been  the  most 
constant  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  attendants  in  her  retire- 
ment, there  have  been  many  other  students  called 
upon  to  serve  their  Leader,  and  such  service  has 
always  been  regarded  in  the  nature  of  an  honor. 
There  have  been  many  assistant  secretaries  and 
many  assistant  companions,  but  as  to  the  personnel 
of  that  roll  of  honor  it  is  not  necessary  to  make  any 
further  statement  than  the  plain  and  straightforward 
one  once  made  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  that  no  one  was  ever 
called  to  Pleasant  View  for  discipline.  They  were 
called  there  because  they  had  shown  by  their  work 
elsewhere  a  high  order  of  usefulness. 

Mrs.  Eddy  has  maintained  her  habit  of  rising 
early  through  all  the  years  of  retirement.  She  rises 
about  six  o'clock  in  summer  and  before  seven  o'clock 
in  winter.  She  has  an  hour  for  prayerful  meditation 
three  times  daily,  morning,  noon,  and  night.    In  the 


346  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

morning  it  is  her  custom  to  walk  through  the  various 
rooms  of  her  house  on  a  tour  of  friendly  inspection, 
whereon  she  not  infrequently  directs  some  change 
in  the  adjustment  of  furnishings  and  draperies ;  but 
mainly  the  tour  is  one  of  cheerful  sociability  when 
she  talks  with  every  member  of  her  household,  the 
laundress  and  the  gardener's  assistant  not  being 
neglected  in  words  of  commendation  and  sallies  of 
wit  or  spiritual  admonition.  The  love  and  reverence 
in  which  all  hold  her  make  her  coming  an  anticipa- 
tion of  each  day. 

After  her  regular  morning  exercise  (which  at 
Pleasant  View  was  in  fine  weather  frequently  a  walk 
about  the  artificial  pond  which  some  of  her  students 
had  caused  to  be  built  in  the  lower  garden,  and  on 
less  agreeable  days  an  hour's  pacing  of  the  covered 
veranda)  Mrs.  Eddy  returns  to  her  study  where  her 
secretary  brings  her  letters.  After  dinner,  which  it 
is  her  custom  to  take  in  the  middle  of  the  day,  she 
usually  goes  for  a  drive.  As  the  daily  drive  was  the 
only  occasion  on  which  she  was  seen  in  public  for 
many  years,  it  became  a  matter  of  public  interest 
and  her  Concord  neighbors  took  pleasure  in  meet- 
ing her  brougham,  drawn  by  a  sober  pair  of  black 
horses.  They  would  bow  their  friendly  salutations 
or  occasionally,  when  she  ordered  her  coachman  to 
stop  and  summoned  them  with  a  kindly  and  courte- 
ous gesture,  would  approach  her  carriage  and  shake 
hands  with  the  venerable  religionist. 

During  the  nineties  Mrs.  Eddy  made  several  visits 
to  Boston.  After  the  completion  of  the  original 
Mother  Church  she  made  a  journey  especially  to 


THE  LEADER  IN  RETIREMENT  347 

inspect  it,  her  heart  yearning  over  this  gift  which 
she  had  so  generously  shared  with  her  students  in 
presenting  to  the  organization.  On  April  1,  1895, 
she  went  to  Boston  unannounced,  with  her  compan- 
ion and  her  secretary,  and  spent  that  night  in  the 
rooms  designed  for  her  especial  use  in  the  church 
building.  These  rooms  are  in  the  tower  of  the  church 
and  consist  of  a  study,  a  bedroom,  and  a  dressing- 
room.  They  are  exquisitely  fitted  with  every  neces- 
sary appointment,  the  furnishing  being  a  gift  of  the 
children  of  the  church. 

On  May  26  of  the  same  year  she  again  visited  the 
Mother  Church  and  preached  from  its  pulpit,  and 
in  February,  1896,  she  also  preached  in  the  Mother 
Church,  returning  the  same  afternoon  to  Concord. 
On  Monday,  June  5,  1899,  Mrs.  Eddy  came  to 
Boston  from  Concord  and  spent  the  night  at  her 
Commonwealth  avenue  house,  then  occupied  by 
Septimus  J.  Hanna,  who  was  the  first  reader  in  the 
Mother  Church  at  that  time.  The  church  held  its 
annual  meeting  in  Tremont  Temple  the  following 
day  and  in  the  afternoon  she  appeared  on  the  plat- 
form and  addressed  the  meeting.  Judge  Hanna 
escorted  Mrs.  Eddy  to  the  platform  and  introduced 
her,  the  students  arising  and  quietly  saluting  her 
with  waving  handkerchiefs.  She  spoke  briefly  on 
the  text  from  Malachi,  "Prove  me  now  herewith, 
saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  if  I  will  not  open  you  the 
windows  of  heaven." 

Mrs.  Eddy  avoided  a  public  reception  by  with- 
drawing from  the  platform  before  the  meeting 
adjourned   and   returning  the   same    afternoon    to 


348  THE   LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Concord.  This  does  not  mean  that  she  was  unwill- 
ing to  receive  her  students  when  she  could  fittingly 
arrange  to  do  so.  At  the  June  communion  service 
in  1895  a  telegram  from  her  was  read  to  the  congre- 
gation in  which  she  invited  all  members  who  desired 
to  call  upon  her  to  go  to  Pleasant  View  on  the  fol- 
lowing day.  About  two  hundred  responded  to  this 
invitation,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  threw  her  house  open, 
receiving  them  with  great  kindness,  shaking  hands 
with  all,  and  conversing  with  many  at  length.  This 
general  reception  was  repeated  in  1897,  when  she 
was  obliged  to  receive  nearly  three  thousand  guests. 
She  could  not  personally  greet  such  a  large  com- 
pany, so  she  received  them  en  masse,  making  a 
lengthy  address  and  having  refreshments  served  upon 
her  lawn. 

Mrs.  Eddy  sent  no  message  of  invitation  in  1898, 
but  a  great  many  students  made  the  pilgrimage  to 
Concord  nevertheless,  and  were  obliged  to  content 
themselves  with  seeing  her  start  on  her  drive.  It 
became  generally  known  to  her  church  that  their 
Leader  was  not  pleased  to  have  these  annual  visits 
take  the  appearance  to  the  world  of  a  pilgrimage  of 
adoration,  for  it  had  begun  to  be  spoken  of  as  though 
she  had  withdrawn  from  daily  intercourse  with  them 
only  to  secure  a  personal  adulation  greater  than  that 
accorded  to  any  living  woman.  This  of  all  things 
Mrs.  Eddy  desired  to  avoid,  for  the  charge  of  apo- 
theosis lurked  behind  any  demonstration  of  her 
students'  affection.  So  for  several  years  such  visits 
were  discouraged. 

But  in  1901,  the  year  in  which  Mrs.  Eddy  was 


THE    LEADER   IN    RETIREMENT  349 

eighty  years  of  age,  she  again  permitted  the  students 
to  gather  at  Pleasant  View  after  the  June  com- 
munion. On  this  occasion  three  special  trains, 
leaving  Boston  for  Concord,  carried  her  guests. 
In  June,  1903,  several  special  trains  carried  about 
10,000  Christian  Scientists  to  Concord.  As  the 
great  multitude  approached  Pleasant  View  mem- 
bers of  her  household  went  to  the  gates  and  re- 
quested the  students  to  enter  the  grounds  and  Mrs. 
Eddy  sent  word  that  she  would  address  them  from 
the  balcony  outside  her  study.  When  she  entered 
the  balcony  she  stood  looking  down  on  the  great 
throng  of  people  for  a  moment  in  silence,  then 
stretched  out  her  hands  to  them  in  a  gesture  char- 
acteristic of  her  great  heart's  love,  seeming  to  say 
in  that  mute  appeal,  "All  that  I  have  I  give  unto 
you."  She  spoke  briefly,  addressing  them  as  though 
they  were  indeed  the  lambs  of  the  Lord  whom  she 
would  feed  with  heavenly  manna.  Here  and  there 
a  student  wept;  all  hung  upon  her  words  and  her 
voice  carried  to  the  remotest  listener.  As  she  stepped 
back  into  her  room,  many  began  to  write  down  the 
words  they  remembered,  and  as  they  compared  their 
notes,  each  one  seemed  to  have  caught  a  special  and 
personal  message.  This  was  the  last  time  Mrs. 
Eddy  received  her  students  en  masse  at  Pleasant 
View. 

There  was,  however,  in  1904  a  large  concourse  of 
students  in  Concord  to  celebrate  the  dedication  of 
the  Concord  church,  a  structure  of  virgin  granite 
near  the  central  square  of  the  capitol.  This  church 
edifice  was  the  gift  of  Mrs.  Eddy  to  her  students  in 
that  city,  and  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the 


350  THE   LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

many  beautiful  Christian  Science  churches  in  Amer- 
ica. About  two  thousand  students  gathered  for  this 
occasion,  but  they  respected  Mrs.  Eddy's  wish  not 
to  haunt  her  drive  or  to  visit  Pleasant  View.  They 
assembled  in  front  of  the  church  and  awaited  her 
visit  to  them.  From  her  carriage  she  made  an  ad- 
dress which  the  perfect  silence  of  the  assemblage 
made  clearly  audible.  She  directly  addressed  her- 
self to  the  president  of  the  church  as  representing 
the  church  body,  but  her  remarks  were  in  the  nature 
of  a  general  greeting. 

When  Mrs.  Eddy  published  "Miscellaneous  Writ- 
ings" in  1897,  she  requested  in  the  March  Journal 
that  her  students  cease  teaching  Christian  Science 
for  one  year.  She  had  labored  assiduously  on  this 
new  publication,  gathering  her  scattered  writings 
out  of  the  Journal  and  from  many  messages  and 
class  lessons,  also  from  some  letters  on  special  sub- 
jects ;  and  she  believed  the  book  would  better  pre- 
pare the  minds  of  persons  coming  into  the  faith  to 
understand  the  Christian  Science  text-book  than 
the  efforts  of  students.  The  book  met  with  great 
success,  for  it  was  like  a  personal  meeting  with  the 
Leader,  full  of  the  animated  flashes  of  her  wit  and 
the  quiet  touches  of  her  sympathetic  understand- 
ing. 

Although  this  work  was  sent  out  as  a  sort  of  pri- 
mary class-book,  it  was  eagerly  read  by  the  students 
who  had  gone  through  many  classes  with  her  as 
teacher,  and  soon  became  the  most  cherished  of  her 
writings  after  "Science  and  Health."  Its  appear- 
ance gave  rise  to  a  demand  for  just  one  more  class, 


THE   LEADER  IN  RETIREMENT  351 

and  Mrs.  Eddy  consented  to  receive  as  students  a 
number  of  the  petitioners  in  November,  1898.  A 
class  of  sixty-one  members  was  organized  in  Con- 
cord. Among  those  who  joined  were  members  from 
England,  Scotland,  and  Canada.  Mrs.  Eddy  re- 
fused remuneration  for  her  instruction,  which  she 
gave  in  the  Concord  Christian  Science  hall,  and  she 
taught  but  two  sessions.  The  lessons  occurred  on 
November  21  and  22,  the  first  lasting  for  two  hours, 
the  second  for  four.  The  students  were  abundantly 
satisfied  with  what  was  pronounced  her  ''wondrous 
teaching." 

Among  the  members  of  this  last  class  was  the 
editor  of  a  newspaper  in  Concord  who  by  becoming 
her  student  became  her  personal  friend.  Another 
editor  became  her  student  by  reading  her  text-book, 
and  they  were  ever  after  during  her  residence  there 
welcome  guests  at  her  house.  This  close  relation- 
ship with  the  two  most  prominent  intelligencers  of 
the  city  made  Concord  feel  that  the  whole  city  was 
on  terms  of  intimacy  with  the  venerable  Leader  of 
the  Christian  Science  Church.  Her  views  on  many 
public  questions  were  obtained  by  them  and  printed 
in  their  papers  and,  whereas  she  had  been  too  modest 
to  acclaim  her  benevolences,  they  were  not  slow  to 
do  so,  and  Concord  became  aware  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  supplying  a  sum  to  the  state  fair  association  for 
the  relief  of  the  poor,  and  frequently  made  donations 
for  hospitals  and  religious  associations  outside  her 
church,  that  she  had  given  the  city  a  well-paved 
boulevard  and  contributed  large  sums  for  projects 
of  the  state  of  New  Hampshire.    She  was  no  longer 


352  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

a  private  personage,  but  one  of  the  capitol's  best 
known  and  most  public-spirited  citizens. 

The  world  which  had  been  so  long  in  recognizing 
her  seemed  at  last  ready  to  acknowledge  her  work 
as  an  important  factor  in  the  progress  of  latter-day 
civilization.  It  was  women  who  conferred  the  first 
general  honor  upon  her,  an  honor  quite  apart  from 
that  accruing  to  her  by  reason  of  her  religious  leader- 
ship. The  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution 
made  her  a  member  of  their  body  in  February,  1893, 
when  the  wife  of  the  president  of  the  United  States, 
Mrs.  Harrison,  was  chief  ofBcer  of  the  organization. 
And  it  was  at  Mrs.  Harrison's  request  that  the  honor 
was  bestowed. 

Newspapers  and  magazines  now  frequently  be- 
sought her  for  interviews  and  communications  on 
important  matters.  She  occasionally  acceded  to  the 
latter  requests,  giving  her  views  on  the  War  with 
Spain,  and,  after  the  death  of  President  McKinley, 
paying  her  tribute  to  his  noble  life.  On  the  occa- 
sions of  public  festivals  and  celebrations  she  also  has 
given  on  request  her  views  as  to  the  meaning  of  the 
Puritan  Thanksgiving  Day  and  its  significance  to 
this  generation  and  the  true  meaning  and  best  cele- 
bration of  the  spirit  of  Christmas.  On  such  ques- 
tions of  public  morals  as  marriage  and  divorce  she 
has  responded  to  requests  for  her  opinions. 

But  to  the  interviewer  in  person,  Mrs.  Eddy  was 
not  accessible.  Her  reasons  for  refusing  to  receive 
press  correspondents  in  general  were  not  based  on 
selfishness  or  indifference  to  public  interest,  but 
rather  that  she  might  not  be  represented  as  self- 


THE   LEADER  IN  RETIREMENT  353 

seeking.  She  had  estabhshed  a  publication  com- 
mittee while  still  active  in  the  church  work,  and  this 
committee  had  extended  its  offices  to  every  important 
city  in  America,  and  of  late  years  to  foreign  cities. 
It  was  not  Mrs.  Eddy's  wish  to  perform  an  act  of 
supererogation  in  giving  out  news  of  the  church. 
Concerning  her  own  life,  she  did  not  think  it  neces- 
sary to  admit  the  world  too  intimately  into  her  per- 
sonal affairs,  for  to  admit  the  world  would  be  to 
make  a  parade  of  the  simplest  private  virtues  and 
devotions.  Acting  as  she  believed  with  the  highest 
propriety,  she  consistently  refused  an  audience  to 
the  special  correspondent. 

Because  of  this  insistent  privacy  at  Pleasant  View 
a  rumor  grew  up  in  the  newspaper  offices  that  the 
founder  of  the  new  religious  faith,  which  was  estab- 
lished on  the  tenet  that  God  is  able  to  heal  all  our 
infirmities,  was  herself  a  victim  of  infirmity.  What 
that  infirmity  might  be  could  only  be  surmised  and 
speculated  upon  by  the  fertile  brains  of  ingenious 
reporters.  In  May  of  1905  Mrs.  Eddy  broke  her 
long- continued  rule  and  granted  an  interview  to  a 
representative  of  the  Boston  Herald.  On  that  oc- 
casion she  said :  "All  that  I  ask  of  the  world  is  time, 
time  to  assimilate  myself  to  God.  I  would  take  all 
the  world  to  my  heart  if  that  were  possible;  but  I 
can  only  ask  my  friends  to  look  away  from  my  per- 
sonality and  fix  their  eyes  on  Truth."  So  gracious, 
so  gentle,  so  detached,  so  luminous  was  her  person- 
ality, that  the  interviewer  could  not  press  upon  her 
the  many  questions  framed  for  the  occasion,  but 
submitted  them  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  secretaries  for  her 


354  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

to  take  up  in  a  more  leisurely  way  with  them,  when 
she  could  dictate  her  replies.  So  humbly  cognizant 
of  this  yielding  on  the  part  of  the  reporter  was  Mrs. 
Eddy,  that  she  sent  to  the  Boston  Herald  a  kind 
tribute  of  appreciation. 

But  this  interview  did  not  satisfy  a  certain  element 
of  the  press  of  America.  The  picture  of  a  saintly 
character,  living  a  contemplative  and  spiritual  life 
of  retirement  did  not  accord  with  its  preconceived 
notion,  false  as  its  own  mental  vision  was.  It 
yearned  to  press  home  upon  the  minds  of  the  world 
its  own  image  in  a  dramatic,  first-page  "  story,"  and 
for  that  end  a  newspaper  of  New  York  decided  to 
make  such  a  powerful  demand  for  an  audience  that 
it  should  not  be  gainsaid.  The  occasion  for  making 
this  demand  seemed  to  the  newspaper  mind  to  arise 
at  the  dedication  of  the  new  Mother  Church  in 
Boston. 

In  1902  Mrs.  Eddy  had  suggested  in  her  message 
to  the  church  the  need  for  a  larger  church  edifice  in 
Boston,  and  at  the  annual  meeting  the  church  voted 
to  raise  any  part  of  $2,000,000  required  for  the  erec- 
tion of  such  an  edifice.  The  work  of  clearing  land 
adjacent  to  the  original  Mother  Church  began  in 
October,  1903.  The  corner-stone  of  the  new  church 
building  was  laid  in  1904,  and  like  a  miracle  the 
great  structure  of  white  granite  and  Bedford  stone 
began  to  arise  from  the  heart  of  the  city.  In  1906 
it  lifted  its  white  dome,  a  serene  symbol  of  faith, 
above  all  the  surrounding  buildings,  visible  from 
far  and  near,  a  crown  of  peace.  This  church  was 
dedicated  in  June,  1906,  when  about  forty  thousand 


THE  LEADER  IN  RETIREMENT  355 

Christian  Scientists  filled  the  city  of  Boston  and  took 
part  in  the  six  successive  services  of  communion. 

The  Christian  Scientists  who  had  come  to  Boston 
to  see  the  Mother  Church  dedicated  remained  to 
attend  the   Wednesday  evening  meeting  at  which 
testimonies  of  Christian  Science  heahng  were  given. 
The  great  temple  was  crowded  from  floor  to  dome 
and   overflow  meetings   were  held   in   the   original 
Mother  Church  and  in  four  public  halls.     Many 
who  were  not  Christian  Scientists  were  amazed  lis- 
teners to  the  outpouring  of  testimonies  from  every 
part  of  the  great  auditorium.    Men  and  women  arose 
in  their  places  on  the  floor  of  the  church  and  in  the 
first  and  second  balconies.    As  each  arose  he  called 
the  name  of  his  city  and  waited  his  turn  to  tell  of 
the  miracle  of  health  and  virtue  WTOught  in  his  life 
as  a  result  of  the  study  of  Christian  Science.     The 
names  of  the  cities  called  up  the  near  and  the  far  of 
the    civilized    world  —  Liverpool,     Galveston,    St. 
Petersburg,    San    Francisco,    Paris,    New    York, 
Atlanta,  and  Portland.    There  were  negroes  as  well 
as  white  men  in  that  audience;   there  were  French, 
German,  and  Scandinavian ;    there  were  army  ofii- 
cers  from  Great  Britain,  and  members  of  the  British 
nobility,  Americans  of  great  wealth,  jurists,  former 
doctors   and   clergymen,    teachers,    clerks,    day   la- 
borers.    It  was  like  a  verberation  of  an  army  with 
banners.     And   not  only   of  the  vanquishment  of 
cancers,  consumption,  broken  limbs,  malignant  dis- 
eases, and  paralysis  did  these  votaries  of  Christian 
Science  testify,   but  of  poverty  overcome,  victory 
gained  over  drunkenness,  morphine,  and  immoral 


356  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

lives.  It  was  a  triumphant  assertion  of  the  health 
and  power  of  spiritual  living. 

Who  now  would  lay  finger  upon  the  character  of 
the  founder  of  such  a  living  faith  }  Who  now  would 
say  that  she  had  not  taught  a  creed  by  which  men 
can  live  and  ennoble  their  lives  ?  Who  would  be- 
grudge her  her  hard-won  right  to  retirement,  peace, 
and  serenity  }  It  would  be  difficult  to  believe,  did 
not  all  the  world  know,  that  in  October  of  this  same 
year  two  representatives  of  a  New  York  newspaper 
did  present  themselves  at  Pleasant  View  and  demand 
an  audience  with  the  venerable  founder  then  in  her 
eighty-fifth  year.  So  churlish  and  so  threatening 
was  their  demand,  so  steeped  were  they  in  a  strange 
suspicion,  that  the  faithful  protectors  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
home  life  knew  not  what  to  say.  The  preposterous 
assertions  that  Mrs.  Eddy  was  no  longer  living 
seemed  to  require  the  reproof  of  her  presence,  and 
yet  to  introduce  such  violent  accusers  to  the  saintly 
Leader  seemed  out  of  the  question.  Mrs.  Eddy 
herself  solved  the  difficulty,  when  the  matter  was 
laid  before  her,  by  saying  that  she  would  see  not 
only  them,  but  with  them  her  neighbor  across  the 
way,  that  by  his  testimony  the  unbelieving  reporters 
might  be  convinced  that  they  were  talking  with  the 
veritable  Mary  Baker  Eddy. 

The  interview  was  brief,  but  the  reporters  were 
given  ample  time  to  ask  the  questions  they  desired. 
The  turbulence  of  their  quest,  the  malignity  of  their 
purpose,  caused  the  venerable  woman  a  slight  trem- 
ulousness  as  she  arose  to  greet  them;  a  flush 
mounted  her  cheeks  and  she  leaned  momentarily 


THE  LEADER  IN  RETIREMENT  357 

upon  the  table  at  which  she  had  been  writing  when 
they  entered.  Upon  such  evidences  of  natural  emo- 
tion they  based  a  story  of  absolute  decrepitude  and 
they  did  not  spare  her  silvered  head  from  indignity. 
The  lurid  story  these  writers  gave  to  the  world  was 
that  Mrs.  Eddy  could  not  possibly  drive  abroad  in 
her  carriage  and  therefore  must  be  impersonated 
by  some  other  gray -haired  woman  many  years  her 
junior.  They  declared  that  she  did  not  manage  her 
business,  and  was  controlled  mentally  and  physi- 
cally by  a  designing  clique  who  lived  in  her  house 
and  humbugged  her  church. 

The  vilification  of  a  blameless  life  smote  the  public 
consciousness  of  the  entire  country.  Far  from  feel- 
ing that  the  New  York  paper  had  performed  a  clever 
journalistic  feat,  the  press  of  the  country  repudiated 
it  with  loathing  and  scorn.  But  with  characteristic 
American  enterprise,  it  sent  representatives  to  Con- 
cord, New  Hampshire,  on  the  very  day  of  the  publi- 
cation of  the  story,  Sunday,  October  28,  1906.  The 
Associated  Press,  the  Publishers  Press,  all  the  large 
newspapers  of  Boston  and  New  York  had  represen- 
tatives at  Mrs.  Eddy's  home  within  twenty-four 
hours.  In  this  emergency  Mr.  Alfred  Farlow,  head 
of  the  Christian  Science  Publication  Committee, 
came  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  relief.  To  meet  the  gathering 
newspaper  men  he  sent  to  Concord  an  able  repre- 
sentative, Mr.  H.  Cornell  Wilson,  of  New  York. 
Mr.  Wilson  conferred  with  Mr.  Frye  and  his  assist- 
ant, Mr.  Lewis  C.  Strang,  a  former  dramatic  critic 
of  Boston.  From  men  of  affairs  in  Concord  who 
were  not  Christian  Scientists  Mr.  Strang  and  Mr. 


358  THE   LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

Wilson  secured  affidavits  as  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  social 
and  business  character.  The  affidavits  were  from 
the  treasurer  of  the  Loan  and  Trust  Savings  Bank 
of  Concord,  Fred  N.  Ladd ;  the  president  of  the  Na- 
tional State  Capital  Bank,  J.  E.  Fernald;  a  lawyer 
who  stands  at  the  head  of  the  New  Hampshire  bar, 
General  Frank  S.  Streeter;  the  mayor  of  Concord, 
Charles  R.  Corning;  and  the  editors  of  the  two 
most  prominent  New  Hampshire  papers,  M.  Meehan 
of  the  Concord  Patriot  and  George  H.  Moses  of 
the  Monitor  and  Statesman. 

The  affidavits  covered  the  points  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  personal  and  business  relations  with  her  bankers, 
that  she  was  the  person  who  rode  out  in  her  carriage 
daily,  and  that  she  was  not  an  invalid,  or  in  any  way 
mentally  impaired,  as  she  had  received  within  the 
week  for  a  call  of  a  half-hour's  duration  Mayor 
Corning  and  General  Streeter.  Mr.  Moses  declared 
that  he  possessed  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  handwriting  a 
budget  of  more  than  a  hundred  letters  written  to 
him  during  the  past  few  years  (the  last  one  bearing  a 
recent  date) ,  letters  concerning  printing  which  he  had 
done  for  her.  Affidavits  were  also  furnished  from 
members  of  the  Pleasant  View  household ;  the  two 
secretaries,  Calvin  A.  Frye  and  Lewis  C.  Strang; 
the  two  companions,  Mrs.  Laura  Sargent  and 
Mrs.  Pamelia  Leonard,  refuting  the  charge  that 
Mrs.  Eddy  had  any  organic  disease. 

The  assembled  press  representatives  accepted 
with  thanks  the  data  supplied  them,  but  united  in 
the  request  for  a  personal  interview  with  Mrs.  Eddy. 
Their  request  was  not  only  united  but  individual,  and 


THE  LEADER  IN  RETIREMENT  359 

the  most  persistent  of  the  reporters  besieged  the 
front  door  of  Pleasant  View,  while  photographers 
and  artists  stood  at  the  gateway  and  haunted  the 
driveway.  Recognizing  the  situation  as  imperative, 
Mrs.  Eddy  decided  to  receive  them  all  on  Tuesday, 
October  30.  They  were  bidden  to  come  at  one 
o'clock,  when  she  would  give  them  an  audience  just 
before  taking  her  drive. 

Accordingly,  about  fifteen  newspaper  men  and 
women  drove  to  Pleasant  View  and  assembled  in 
her  drawing-room.  There  were  also  present  her 
banker,  her  lawyer,  the  mayor,  and  a  few  men  promi- 
nent in  the  Mother  Church.  The  dainty  rose 
drawing-room  was  quite  filled  with  an  official-looking 
assemblage,  and  many  of  the  faces  were  intense  with 
expectation  of  what  they  were  about  to  behold. 
When  Mrs.  Eddy  came  down  her  own  stairway  and 
stood  for  a  moment  in  the  entrance,  confronting  the 
cynical  and  skeptical  world,  a  world  which  refused  to 
believe  in  disinterested  virtue,  she  caught  for  a 
moment  at  the  portiere  and  an  expression  of  pained 
comprehension  slowly  swept  her  face,  a  crimson 
stain  burned  her  cheeks,  and  her  eyes  flashed  a  look 
of  reproach  over  the  assemblage. 

Professor  H.  S.  Hering,  first  reader  of  the  Concord 
church,  courteously  and  briefly  stated  the  purpose 
of  the  gathering.  Mrs.  Eddy  bowed.  To  the  first 
question,  "Are  you  in  perfect  bodily  health.?"  she 
replied  clearly  and  firmly,  "I  am."  When  the  second 
question  was  put,  "Have  you  any  physician  beside 
God  ?  "  Mrs.  Eddy  loosed  her  grasp  upon  the  portiere, 
took  a  step  forward,  and  stretching  out  both  hands  in 


360  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

a  sweeping,  open  gesture,  declared  solemnly  and  with 
magnificent  energy,  her  voice  thrilling  all  who  heard 
her,  "Indeed,  I  have  not !  His  everlasting  arms  are 
around  me  and  support  me,  and  that  is  enough." 

Here  Mrs.  Eddy  terminated  the  interview  with 
another  bow  to  the  assemblage  and  a  hand  lifted 
against  further  questioning.  She  withdrew  and 
Mr.  Frye  and  Mrs.  Sargent  escorted  her  to  her 
carriage  which  was  waiting  under  the  porte-cochere. 
As  she  left  the  house  the  newspaper  men  crowded 
the  windows  to  watch  her  drive  away.  When  her 
carriage  disappeared,  they  asked  to  be  shown  the 
house,  and  were  escorted  over  it.  They  entered 
the  quiet  study  on  the  second  floor,  looked  at  the 
pictures  on  the  walls,  the  books  in  the  cases,  stood 
where  she  so  often  did  to  survey  the  broad  valley. 
They  went  through  the  simple  little  bedroom  ad- 
joining and  surveyed  the  plain  austerity  of  its 
furnishing  with  frank  curiosity.  The  women  re- 
porters asked  to  see  her  wardrobe,  and  were  shown 
the  orderly  clothes-room  where  her  garments  hung. 
In  the  dining-room  they  saw  where  she  sat  at  table, 
the  chocolate  service  she  used,  and  inquired  who 
sat  on  her  right  and  left.  They  saw  the  library,  her 
special  chair,  the  table  where  books  of  reference 
were  consulted.  They  examined  the  rugs  and  hang- 
ings of  the  drawing-room,  the  souvenirs,  certificates 
of  honor,  the  paintings.  They  did  not  ask  to  see 
her  account  books,  or  the  exact  spot  in  which  she 
knelt  at  prayer. 

On  the  whole  the  investigation  of  the  private  life 
and  character  of  the  venerable  Leader  was  satis- 


THE  LEADER  IN  RETIREMENT  361 

factory  to  the  newspapers.  The  journal  which  had 
printed  the  disagreeable  article  was  discredited.  It 
had  failed  to  substantiate  the  story  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  in  feeble  health,  and  could  produce  no  one  to 
bear  it  out  in  the  statement  that  she  was  mentally 
incapable.  Her  home  life  was  shown  to  be  simple 
and  her  relations  with  the  citizens  of  Concord  open 
and  honorable. 

But  one  important  circumstance  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
life  remained  uncanvassed,  her  relation  with  her  son, 
George  W.  Glover.  Herein  the  New  York  news- 
paper which  had  aroused  the  recent  inquiry 
thought  it  saw  an  opportunity  to  again  challenge 
public  attention  and  prove  that  the  life  upon  which 
public  scrutiny  had  been  bent  was  not  blameless. 
On  Thanksgiving  Day  of  1906  a  representative  of 
the  paper  called  on  Mr.  Glover  in  his  home  in  Lead 
City,  South  Dakota,  carrying  a  letter  from  Senator 
William  E.  Chandler  of  New  Hampshire  which 
stated  that  he  had  consented  to  act  as  legal  counsel 
concerning  certain  questions  which  had  arisen  in 
connection  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  life.  In  its  subsequent 
story  of  the  interview  with  George  Glover,  the 
newspaper  stated  frankly  that  it  found  the  son  a 
loyal  champion  of  his  mother,  and  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  impress  upon  him  his  legal  opportunity  and 
to  make  him  believe  that  his  aid  was  necessary  to 
extricate  his  mother  from  being  "detained  in  the 
custody  of  strangers  against  her  will." 

The  clever  New  York  newspaper  man  sat  down 
in  George  Glover's  home,  a  home  with  which  Mrs. 
Eddy  had  presented  her  son,  and  drew  from  the 


362  THE   LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

guileless  Westerner  the  story  of  his  life  and  his 
relations  with  his  mother.  It  was  a  story  which 
must  have  surprised  the  reporter,  for  in  spite  of 
skilful  manipulation  of  the  facts,  the  truth  was 
made  apparent  and  stood  forth  in  unblemished 
purity  a  witness  to  the  mother's  faithful  considera- 
tion for  her  only  child.  He  related  the  circumstances 
of  his  several  visits  to  his  mother  while  she  was 
living  at  Pleasant  View,  how  his  mother  had  given 
him  $5,000  at  one  time  to  further  his  mining  in- 
terests, how  she  had  built  for  him  the  finest  house 
in  Lead  City  at  an  expense  of  $20,000  and  had  sent 
him  $1,100  additional  to  make  alterations  which  he 
desired  after  occupying  it,  how  she  had  interested 
herself  in  the  education  of  his  children  and  had  sent 
money  to  him  for  that  purpose. 

To  be  sure,  George  Glover's  story  was  filled  with 
personal  grievances.  He  did  not  like  it  that  he  could 
not  always  have  direct  access  to  his  mother  when 
visiting  her  at  Pleasant  View.  He  would  have  liked 
to  realize  for  days  the  pleasure  he  experienced  for 
a  few  hours  in  seeing  her  embrace  and  caress  his 
children  and  make  merry  with  the  youngest  in  a 
relaxed  mood.  He  recounted  how  she  had  once 
permitted  him  in  a  sportive  spirit  to  ring  her  electric 
bells  and  summon  her  secretary.  It  was  the  presence 
of  a  secretary  which  seemed  particularly  to  have 
aggrieved  the  son.  A  secretary  was  to  him  an  un- 
necessary personage,  a  man  of  affairs  who  scanned 
his  demands  upon  his  mother's  love  with  an  un- 
emotional business  eye  and  offered  advice  where 
Glover  thought  he  would  have  benefited  had  advice 


THE  LEADER  IN  RETIREMENT  363 

not  been  given.  As  a  matter  of  fact  Calvin  Frye 
never  acted  as  adviser  but  as  executor  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  wishes. 

Playing  upon  this  prejudice  toward  the  secretary, 
the  newspaper  representative  appears  to  have  found 
it  easy  to  induce  Glover  to  exaggerate  in  his  own 
mind  the  sense  of  his  grievances  and  to  catch  the 
fear  that  he  would  eventually  be  wrongfully  de- 
prived of  his  inheritance  by  those  men  of  affairs  with 
whom  his  mother  had  so  long  associated.  Glover 
was  induced  to  believe  that  he  was  in  a  pitiable 
condition  of  neglect  and  that  powerful  friends  had 
been  raised  up  by  the  newspaper  to  aid  him.  Thus 
he  beheld  his  "legal  opportunity"  to  interfere  in  the 
management  of  his  mother's  affairs. 

As  soon  as  George  Glover  consented  to  act  in  a 
suit  at  law  nominally  for  his  mother's  interests,  but 
in  reality  against  her  every  wish  and  purpose,  her 
only  other  heirs  were  sought  out  by  this  same  agency 
and  persuaded  to  join  the  issue.  These  heirs  were 
her  adopted  son,  Ebenezer  Foster-Eddy,  and  George 
W.  Baker,  her  nephew.  The  suit  was  brought  by 
the  sons  and  nephew,  together  with  Glover's  oldest 
child,  Mary  Baker  Glover.  It  was  called  the  peti- 
tion of  next  friends,  or  exactly,  "The  petition  of 
Mary  Baker  Glover  Eddy  who  sues  by  her  next 
friends  George  W.  Glover,  Mary  Baker  Glover,  and 
George  W.  Baker  against  Calvin  A.  Frye,  Alfred 
Farlow,  Irving  C.  Tomlinson,  Ira  O.  Knapp, 
William  B.  Johnson,  Stephen  A.  Chase,  Joseph 
Armstrong,  Edward  A.  Kimball,  Hermann  S.  Ber- 
ing, and  Lewis  C.  Strang." 


364  THE   LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

The  particulars  of  the  complaint  are  too  fresh  in 
the  minds  of  the  public  to  be  recounted  save  in 
summary.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  it  was  set  forth 
in  the  bill  that  Mrs.  Eddy  was  forcibly  detained  and 
constrained  to  do  the  will  of  strangers,  that  her 
large  estate  was  manipulated  improperly  by  her 
secretaries,  and  that  she  was  in  a  feeble  mental  state 
which  prevented  her  comprehending  what  dis- 
position was  being  made  of  her  affairs.  The  plain- 
tiffs prayed  that  the  defendants  be  required  to  give 
account  of  all  their  business  transactions,  and  if 
they  had  wrongfully  disposed  of  any  property  that 
they  be  made  to  restore  it;  that  they  be  restrained 
from  any  further  business  dealings  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 
name,  pending  the  suit,  and  that  a  receiver  be  ap- 
pointed to  take  possession  of  all  Mrs.  Eddy's 
property. 

So  this  son,  who  was  alienated  from  his  mother  in 
childhood  because  his  rugged  health  and  boisterous 
spirits  were  declared  by  relatives  to  be  unendurable 
in  a  home  where  she  was  an  invalid,  was  now  in  her 
advanced  years  stirred  up  against  her  by  what 
motive  it  is  difficult  indeed  to  determine,  but  by  the 
method  of  arousing  a  false  fear  for  her  welfare 
through  his  unfamiliarity  with  the  enormous  social 
interests  involved.  But  Mrs.  Eddy  was  not  supine 
under  the  peculiar  and  extraordinary  attack.  She 
came  forward  to  meet  the  issue  with  the  deliberation 
of  a  superbly  clarified  intellect  and  her  procedure 
was  so  wise  in  every  detail  as  to  win  the  applause 
of  the  most  judicial  as  well  as  the  most  worldly  of 
her  critics. 


THE  LEADER  IN  RETIREMENT  865 

Her  first  act  was  to  employ  an  expert  accountant 
to  go  over  her  books  and  ascertain  if  any  charge  of 
mismanagement  or  malfeasance  could  be  brought 
against  her  trusted  secretary,  Calvin  A.  Frye. 
When  her  books  which  had  been  audited  yearly 
were  found  to  be  substantially  correct,  save  for  a 
slight  error  in  bookkeeping  which  defrauded  not 
her,  but  the  secretary  himself,  she  created  a  trustee- 
ship, transferring  all  her  property  to  three  men  for 
their  management  and  disposition,  subject  to  clearly 
defined  conditions.  These  three  men  were  her 
cousin,  the  Honorable  Henry  M.  Baker,  her  banker, 
Josiah  E.  Fernald,  and  the  editor  of  the  Christian 
Science  Journal  and  Sentinel  (also  member  of  the 
board  of  directors  of  the  Mother  Church),  Archibald 
McLellan.  But  one  of  these  men  was  a  Christian 
Scientist;  the  others  were  prominent  business  men 
of  Concord,  her  cousin  having  represented  his  dis- 
trict in  Congress. 

With  a  view  to  taking  this  step  she  had  caused  to 
be  created  a  trust  deed  for  the  benefit  of  her  son, 
George  W.  Glover,  and  his  family,  by  which  she 
conveyed  securities  valued  at  $125,000  to  the  guardi- 
anship of  her  lawyer.  General  Frank  S.  Streeter, 
Archibald  McLellan,  and  Irving  C.  Tomlinson. 
The  provisos  of  the  trust  guaranteed  a  liberal  annual 
income  to  her  son  during  his  lifetime  and  to  his  wife 
during  hers,  a  smaller  annual  income  to  each  of 
her  grandchildren,  and  the  expenditure  of  money 
for  the  education  of  those  who  had  not  completed 
their  schooling,  and  its  maintenance  in  force  until 
her  youngest  grandchild  should  reach  his  majority. 


866  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

On  the  death  of  her  son  and  his  wife,  and  the  arrival 
of  the  grandchildren  at  years  of  majority,  the  trust 
was  to  be  paid  over  in  equal  shares  to  her  grand- 
children. This  trust  bore  the  proviso,  however, 
that  the  beneficiaries  should  not  directly  or  in- 
directly contest  her  last  will  or  other  disposition  of 
property. 

This  arrangement  did  not  satisfy  George  Glover, 
whose  suspicion  was  now  thoroughly  aroused  by 
misrepresentations  of  his  mother's  property.  He 
was  led  to  believe  that  her  fortune  was  enormous 
and  that  he  was  faring  but  ill  in  its  benefits.  The 
petition  was  filed  March  1,  1907,  and  on  April  2 
the  trustees  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  property  begged  leave 
to  intervene  and  be  made  substitutes  in  place  of  the 
''next  friends."  Thereupon  the  complainants 
amended  their  petition  and  considerable  legal  delay 
ensued.  On  June  5,  Judge  Robert  N.  Chamberlin 
of  New  Hampshire  denied  the  motion  of  the  trustees 
to  intervene,  but  on  June  27  he  constituted  the  Hon- 
orable Edgar  Aldrich  a  master  of  the  court  to  hear 
all  pertinent  and  competent  evidence  and  determine 
whether  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy  on  the  first  day  of 
March,  1907,  was  capable  of  intelligently  managing, 
controlling,  and  conducting  her  financial  affairs. 
Co-masters  were  subsequently  appointed,  these 
being  Dr.  George  F.  Jelly  of  Boston,  an  alienist, 
and  the  Honorable  Hosea  W.  Parker  of  Claremont, 
New  Hampshire,  an  eminent  lawyer. 

Accordingly,  when  all  the  details  of  qualifying  for 
masters  were  completed.  Judge  Aldrich  began  the 
hearing  in  Concord.    The  hearing  opened  on  Mon- 


THE  LEADER  IN  RETIREMENT  367 

day,  August  13,  1907.  It  was  continued  for  six  days, 
with  a  recess  for  Saturday  and  Sunday,  and  on  the 
sixth  day  the  complainants  withdrew  their  suit  by 
motion  of  their  counsel,  without  asking  from  the 
masters  any  finding  upon  the  questions  submitted 
to  them  by  Judge  Chamberlin.  The  withdrawal 
of  the  suit  came  suddenly  and  was  in  the  nature  of  a 
collapse.  It  followed  shortly  upon  the  heels  of  a 
visit  paid  to  Mrs.  Eddy  at  Pleasant  View  by  the 
masters'  court  and  counsel  for  both  defendants  and 
plaintiffs  which  was  a  courtesy  extended  to  her, 
because  of  her  years,  by  Judge  Aldrich.  Senator 
Chandler,  the  lawyer  for  George  W.  Glover,  had 
endeavored  to  have  the  court  command  Mrs.  Eddy's 
presence  in  the  court  room,  but  Judge  Aldrich  de- 
cided that  the  court  could  convene  as  well  in  the 
library  of  Pleasant  View  to  protect  Mrs.  Eddy  from 
the  unnecessary  strain  of  appearing  in  a  court  room 
among  the  throngs  of  the  curious  and  at  such  a 
season  as  mid-August.  During  the  visit  to  her  home 
she  exhibited  such  mental  alertness  and  ability  in 
discussing  financial,  civic,  and  social  topics,  that  it 
was  a  foregone  conclusion  that  the  masters'  findings 
would  adjudge  her  eminently  capable  of  administer- 
ing her  own  affairs.  Apprehending  this  clearly  from 
long  legal  experience,  the  astute  lawyer  for  the  com- 
plainants decided  upon  withdrawal. 

Therefore,  after  almost  a  year  of  unjust  prosecu- 
tion, Mrs.  Eddy  was  permitted  to  regain  the  privacy 
which  she  desired  and  the  conduct  of  matters  rela- 
tive to  the  welfare  of  the  church  in  which  her  life- 
work  had  centered.    Her  first  public  utterance  came 


368  THE  LIFE  OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

through  her  trustees  when  she  made  pubHc  her  in- 
tention of  creating  a  fund  for  the  education  of  indi- 
gent students  along  Hues  of  Christian  Science 
inquiry.  The  details  of  her  project  have  not  been 
worked  out,  but  the  public  was  satisfied  that  the 
fortune  derived  from  the  sale  of  her  various  books 
was  designed  for  the  betterment  of  humanity. 

On  Sunday,  January  26, 1908,  Mrs.  Eddy  changed 
her  residence  from  Pleasant  View,  Concord,  to 
Chestnut  Hill,  in  the  suburbs  of  Boston.  Her  new 
home,  the  former  Lawrence  estate,  is  a  cheerful 
gray  stone  mansion,  situated  in  twelve  acres  of 
well-wooded  ground,  commanding  a  view  of  the 
Blue  Hills.  It  is  a  commodious  house,  containing 
twenty-five  rooms,  and  is  adapted  for  the  use  of  a 
larger  household  than  was  Pleasant  View.  Mrs. 
Eddy's  new  educational  projects  require  the  addi- 
tional attention  of  extra  clerks  and  secretaries,  and 
she  also  desired  to  be  in  closer  touch  with  the  head- 
quarters of  the  church  in  furthering  her  philan- 
thropic purposes. 

Her  removal  from  Concord  was  made  by  special 
train  and  she  was  accompanied  by  a  small  party  of 
Christian  Scientists.  Her  drive  to  the  station  from 
Pleasant  View  was  somewhat  of  a  farewell  to  her 
birthplace  and  was  on  the  whole  a  rather  sad  one ; 
but  the  journey  aroused  her  spirits  to  the  work 
before  her,  and  she  entered  her  new  home  blithely 
and  cheerfully.  Her  energy  was  unusual  and  within 
a  few  hours  she  had  established  the  routine  of  her 
life  in  her  new  home.  The  arrano^ement  of  its  rooms 
is  not  unlike  that  of  Pleasant  View,  except  for  a 


■J^aaiRig-,, 


THE   LEADER  IN  RETIREMENT  369 

greater  spaciousness  and  more  agreeable  accommo- 
dations for  her  assistants  and  visiting  friends. 

When  it  became  known  in  Concord  that  Mrs. 
Eddy  had  decided  to  make  her  home  in  Massa- 
chusetts, the  city  council  met  and  passed  resolutions 
of  regret  at  her  departure  and  of  appreciation  for 
the  kindly  relations  that  had  existed  for  nineteen 
years  between  her  and  Concord  people  and  also  of 
her  beneficence  to  the  city  of  Concord.  The  mayor 
and  the  clerk  were  authorized  to  attest  the  testi- 
monial of  esteem  in  behalf  of  the  city.  This  was 
done  and  the  resolutions  forw^arded  to  Mrs.  Eddy. 
She  replied  to  their  cordial  recognition  in  the 
following  words: 

To  the  Honorable  Mayor  and  City  Council,  Concord,  N.  H. 

Gentlemen,  —  I  have  not  only  the  pleasure  but 
the  honor  of  replying  to  the  City  Council  of  Con- 
cord, in  joint  convention  assembled,  and  to  Alder- 
man Cressy,  for  the  kindly  resolutions  passed  by 
your  honorable  body,  and  for  which  I  thank  you 
deeply.  Lest  I  should  acknowledge  more  than  I 
deserve  of  praise,  I  leave  their  courteous  opinions 
to  their  good  judgment. 

My  early  days  hold  rich  recollections  of  asso- 
ciations with  your  churches  and  institutions,  and 
memory  has  a  distinct  model  in  granite  of  the  good 
folk  in  Concord,  which  like  the  granite  of  their 
State,  steadfast  and  enduring,  has  hinted  this  quality 
to  other  states  and  nations  all  over  the  world. 

My  home  influence,  early  education  and  church 
experience,  have  unquestionably  ripened  into  the 
fruits  of  my  present  religious  experience,  and  for 
this  I  prize  them.     May  I  honor  this  origin  and 


370  THE  LIFE   OF  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

deserve  the  continued  friendship  and  esteem  of  the 
people  in  my  native  State. 

Sincerely  yours, 

Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy. 

By  this  letter  she  affirms  her  continued  interest  in 
all  who  have  been  associated  with  her  throughout 
her  long  years  of  usefulness  and  noble  living ;  and  by 
the  projects  to  which  she  has  lately  set  her  attention, 
namely,  the  working  out  of  her  philanthropic  and 
educational  endowment,  she  has  declared  her  inten- 
tion of  rising  above  the  criticism  of  an  unjust  world 
into  the  pure  atmosphere  of  brotherly  love,  ful- 
filling the  commandments  of  her  only  acknowledged 
Master,  to  love  God  with  all  her  heart  and  her 
neighbor  as  herself. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


AcKLAND,  James,  student  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's,  265,  266 

Adams  and  Co.,  rejection  of  IMS.  of 
Science  and  Health  by,  210,  211 

Alcott,  Bronson,  176;  quoted,  304 

Louisa   M.,  meeting  with    Mrs. 

Eddy,  305;  her  article  in  the  Wo- 
man s  Journal,  306;  Mrs.  Eddy's 
reply  to,  306 

Aldrich,  Hon.  Edgar,  the  suit  in  equity, 
366,  367 

Allen,  George  H.,  227 

Ambrose,  Abigail,  wife  of  Mark  Baker, 
7 ;  her  abilities,  13 ;  her  character, 
14 ;  her  death,  45 

Deacon  Nathaniel,  7 

American,  the  New  York,  statement 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  printed  in,  313,  314 

Amesbury,  Mass.,  Mrs.  Eddy's  so- 
journ in,  175-192 

Appleton,  Jane,  wife  of  Franklin 
Pierce,  51 

Arens,  Edward  J.,  student  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's,  242-245;  accused  of  con- 
spiracy to  murder  Spofford,  247- 
249;  case  not  prosecuted,  249; 
facts  of  the  conspiracy  against,  252- 
258;  pirates  work  of  Mrs.  Eddy, 
274-276;  enjoined  from  distribut- 
ing his  pamphlet,  276,  296,  297 

Armstrong,  Joseph,  Mrs.  Eddy's  pub- 
lisher, 335 ;  the  suit  in  equity,  363 

Bagley,  Miss  Sarah,  Mrs.  Eddy 
boards    with,    179-181;    takes    up 


healing  as  a  profession,  181 ;  her 
I^erversion  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  teaching, 
181 ;  Mrs.  Eddy  returns  to  live 
with,  188,  189;  refuses  to  be  guided 
by  Mrs.  Eddy,  207 

Squire  Lowell,  179,  180 

Bailey,    Joshua,    editorship    of    the 

Christian  Science  Journal,  295 
Baker,  Abigail,  12 ;  wife  of  Alexander 
Tilton,  32,  35 ;  son  Albert  born,  43; 
daughter  Evelyn  born,  44;  Mrs. 
Eddy  lives  with,  49;  kindness  to 
Mrs.  Eddy  during  her  illness,  57; 
opposes  Mrs.  Eddy's  visit  to  Quim- 
by,  78,  79;  sends  her  to  Hill,  79. 
80;  her  disillusionment  concerning 
Quimby,  107 ;  takes  Dr.  Patterson 
to  task,  119;  offers  Mrs.  Eddy  a 
home,  139;  endeavors  to  dissuade 
her  from  divine  heahng,  139,  140; 
\'isited  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  172 
—  Albert,  12 ;  enters  Dartmouth 
College,  21 ;  takes  up  law,  21 ;  at- 
tracts FrankUn  Pierce,  25 ;  love  for 
his  sister,  Mrs.  Eddy,  25,  26;  he 
tutors  Mrs.  Eddy,  27,  28;  nomi- 
nated for  Congress,  36 ;  his  sudden 
death,  36 ;  pretended  spirit  message 
from,  114,  115 

family,  the,  genealogy  of,  3-6 

George,  12 ;  enters  mills  at  San- 

bornton  Bridge,  32;  becomes  part- 
ner in  Tilton  mills,  32;  increasing 
prosperity,  44;  appointed  to  Gov- 
ernor's   staff,    44;     marriage    with 


374 


INDEX 


Martha  Drew  Rand,  45 ;  moves  to 
Baltimore,  45 ;  visited  by  Mrs.  Eddy 
in  Tilton,  172 ;  his  death,  172 

Baker,  George  W.,  nephew  of  Mrs. 
Eddy,  his  part  in  the  suit  in  equity, 
363 

Hon.  Henry  M.,  trusteeship,  365 

James,  4 

John,  first  in  America,  5 

Captain  Joseph,  5 

Joseph,  son  of  Capt.  Joseph,  5 

Mark,  father  of  INIrs.  Eddy,  4, 

5;  his  farm  at  Bow,  N.  H.,  11,  12, 
14,  15 ;  his  concern  for  Mrs.  Eddy 
as  a  cliild,  18,  19;  official  duties, 
22-24 ;  reUgious  tenets,  23,  28,  29 ; 
in  a  lawsuit  with  Franklin  Pierce, 
24,  25 ;  dines  with  Gov.  Pierce,  25  ; 
religious  views  conflict  with  Mrs. 
Eddy's,  28-31;  moves  to  Tilton, 
32;  death  of  his  wife,  45;  second 
marriage  with  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Patterson  Duncan,  45;  death  of, 
139 

Martha,     12 ;      marriage     with 

Luther  Pillsbury,  35;  visited  by 
Mrs.  Eddy,  172;  her  daughter, 
Ellen,  healed  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  173 

Mary,  see  Mary  Baker  Eddy 

■ Samuel,  12;  becomes  a  con- 
tractor in  Boston,  21,  32;  asso- 
ciation with  George  Washington 
Glover,  37 

Thomas,  5 

Thomas,  son  of  Thomas,  5 

Ballou,  Hosea,  157 

Baltimore,  Md.,  45,  51 

Bancroft,  S.  P.,  student  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's,  210,  227 

Banner  of  Light,  the,  Mrs.  Eddy's 
interview  with  editor  of,  112 

Barre,  Vt.,  Mrs.  Eddy  moves  to,  326 

Barry,  George,  student  of  Mrs.  Eddy's, 
210,  227,  229;  conflict  with  Mr. 
Eddy,  231 ;  brings  suit  against  Mrs. 


Eddy,  233,  234 ;  offers  to  drive  Dr. 
Kennedy  out  of  Lynn,  245,  246 

Bartlett,  Miss  Julia,  student  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's,  265,  273,  284,  290 

Barton,  Vt.,  283 

Bates,  General  Erastus  N.,  290 

Beecher,  Lyman,  156 

Belfast,  Me.,  83 

Bennington,  Battle  of,  2 

Berry,  Governor,  70 

Besse,  Francis  E.,  sells  property  to 
Mrs.  Eddy,  213,  214 

Blackwell,  Miss  Alice  Stone,  conduct 
of  Woman's  Journal,  306 ;  contribu- 
tion to  the  Christian  Science  Jour- 
nal, 306 

Blavatsky,  Madame,  Mrs.  Eddy  on 
theoso]  hy  of,  306 

Boscawen,  N.  H.,  35,  50 

Bow,  N.  H.,  buthplace  of  Mrs.  Eddy, 
1 ;  family  Hfe  at,  4 ;  Mark  Baker's 
farm  at,  11,  12 

Bradshaw,  Ella,  her  connection  with 
the  California  Metaphysical  Col- 
lege, 301 

Brown,  Miss  Lucretia,  240;  brings 
suit  against  Spoflord,  241, 242 

Bubier,  S.  M.,  Mrs.  Eddy  cared  for 
at  residence  of,  128,  129 

Bull  Run,  battle  of,  70 

Bunker  Hill,  battle  of,  2 

Burkmar,  Lucius,  mesmeric  subject 
of  Phineas  Quimby,  84;  of  John 
Bovee  Dods,  85 

Burnett,  Frances  Hodgson,  meeting 
with  ]VIrs.  Eddy,  305 

Burnham,  "Priest,"  23 

Buswell,  Arthur  True,  student  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's,  265,  266,  269,  283-286,  290; 
editorship  of  the  Christian  Science 
Journal,  285,  293 ;  his  apostasy,  293 

California     Metaphysical     CoUege, 

the,  301 
Carr,  Oren,  266 


INDEX 


375 


Chamberlin,  Judge  Robert  N.,  366 

Chandler,  Senator  William  E.,  coun- 
sel for  "next  friends"  in  suit  in 
equity,  361,  367 

Channing,  William  Ellery,  exponent 
of  transcendentalism,  156,  157 

Charleston,  S.  C,  39 

Charlestown,  Mass.,  5 

Chase,  Stephen  A.,  trusteeship  of,  341 ; 
the  suit  in  equity,  363 

Cheney,  Russell,  marriage  with  Ma- 
hala  Sanborn,  47 ;  living  in  Groton, 
N.  H.,  60 

Chestnut  Hill,  Mass.,  present  home  of 
Mrs.  Eddy,  368 

Chicago,  appeal  for  a  teacher,  298; 
Mrs.  Eddy's  trip  to,  300 ;  her  work 
there,  300,  301 ;  founding  of  lUinois 
Christian  Science  Institute  at,  301 ; 
meeting  of  national  association  in, 
316-321 

Chickering  Hall,  meeting-place  of 
Boston  church,  340 

Chippewa,  battle  of,  6 

Choate,  Mrs.  Clara,  her  \asit  to  Mrs. 
Eddy,  263,  264 ;  sent  as  a  precursor 
to  Boston,  272;  delivers  eulogy  on 
Mr.  Eddy,  281;  restores  health  to 
Mr.  Frye's  mother,  287;  her  un- 
wilhngness  to  go  to  Chicago,  299 

,  George  D.,  265,  269,  281 

Christian  Healing,  publication  of,  315 

"Christian  Science  Home,"  212-214 

Christian  Science  Journal,  the,  quoted, 
98,  130,  136;  The  Science  of  Man 
printed  in,  189 ;  quoted,  191;  found- 
ing of  the  journal,  284,  285;  its 
aims  and  scope,  291,  292 ;  its  furtlier 
history,  293-296 ;  quoted,  304 ;  con- 
tribution of  James  Henry  Wiggin, 
310-312;  Mrs.  Eddy's  Chicago 
address  printed  in,  319;  prints 
notice  of  dissolution  of  organization, 
339 

Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  organized 


in  Boston,  266;  early  meeting,  267; 
rebellion  of,  268-270;  Mrs.  Eddy's 
decisive  action,  271 ;  dissolution  of 
bonds  of  organization  of,  339 

Clark,  Mrs.  Ellen  J.,  student  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's,  265 

George,  describes  Mrs.   Eddy's 

appearance  and  personality,  152- 
154 ;  acts  as  witness  for  Mrs.  Eddy, 
210 ;  describes  the  first  rejection  of 
the  MS.  of  Science  and  Health,  210, 
211 

George  D.,   Mrs.   Eddy   boards 

with  family  of,  144 

Miss  Sarah  J.,  editorship  of  the 

Christian  Science  Journal,  295 

Clay,  Henry,  50 

Cleveland,  Rose  Elizabeth,  Mrs. 
Eddy's  review  of  her  edition  of 
George  EUot,  306 

CoUier,  George,  accomplice  of  James 
Sargeant,  254,  256,  257 

Concord,  N.  H.,  Mrs.  Eddy  retires  to, 
336 ;  hfe  in,  344-368 

Congress,  the  Continental,  New  Hamp>- 
shire's  delegates  to,  2 

Conway,  Katherine,  interview  quoted, 
305 

Conwell,  Russell  H.,  attorney  for  Mr. 
Eddy  in  SpofFord  conspiracy,  255 

Corner,  Mrs.  Abby  H.,  prosecuted  for 
malpractice,  325 

Corning,  Charles  R.,  358 

Corser,  Bartlett,  33-35 

Rev.  Enoch,  intellectual  com- 
radeship with  Mrs.  Eddy,  33,  34 

Crafts,  Hiram  S.,  his  acquaintance 
with  Mrs.  Eddy,  154 ;  becomes  her 
first  pupil,  158-165 ;  practices  heal- 
ing, 164 

Crafts,  Mrs.  (Hiram  S.),  her  resent- 
ment of  INIrs.  Eddy's  presence,  162- 
165 

Crosby,  Ada,  her  devotion  to  Mrs. 
Eddy,  112,  113 


376 


INDEX 


Crosby,  Mrs.  Sarah,  meeting  with  Mrs. 

Eddy,  110;   visited  by  Mrs.  Eddy, 

112;  her  belief  in  Spiritualism,  113; 

Mrs.   Eddy's   efforts   to   disillusion 

her,  113-116 
Crosse,  Mrs.  Sarah  H.,  editorship  of 

the  Christian  Science  Journal,  295 ; 

her  disaffection,  295;   accompanies 

Mrs.  Eddy  to  Chicago,  300 
Cushing,  Dr.  Alvin  M.,  attends  Mrs. 

Eddy,  127-129 

Daman,  Mrs.  F.  A.,  270 

Daniels,  Warren,  60 

Dartmouth  College,  founding  of,  3; 
Albert  Baker  attends,  21 

Daughters  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion, ]\Irs.  Eddy  becomes  a  member 
of,  352 

Davis,  Andrew  Jackson,  on  mesmer- 
ism, 55 

Day,  Rev.  George  B.,  at  meeting  of 
national  association  in  Chicago, 
318 

Dods,  John  Bovee,  mesmerist,  85,  86  ; 
influence  on  Quimby,  89 

Dresser,  Julius,  98;  harasses  Mrs. 
Eddy  with  a  pamphlet,  136;  his 
theories,  323 

Duncan,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Patterson, 
marriage  with  Mark  Baker,  45 

Dunshee,  Mrs.  Margaret  J.,  266,  269 

Durant,  S.  Louise,  269 

Eastaman,  Captain  Joseph  S.,  317; 
trusteeship,  341 

Eddy,  Asa  Gilbert,  his  acquaintance 
with  Mrs.  Eddy,  229;  his  person- 
ality, 230;  conflict  with  SpofFord, 
231 ;  marriage  with  Mrs.  Eddy, 
232 ;  teaching,  247 ;  accused  of  con- 
spiracy to  murder  Spofford,  247- 
249;  case  not  prosecuted,  249; 
facts  of  the  conspiracy  against,  252- 
258;    protects  Mrs.  Eddy's  works. 


274;    arraignment   of   Arens,   275, 
276;  his  death,  277-281. 

Eddy,  E.  J.  Foster,  see  E.  J.  Foster- 
Eddy. 

Mary  Baker,  unfounded  rimiors 

concerning,  xiv-xvi ;  birthplace,  1 ; 
her  ancestry,  3-8;  her  birth,  12; 
influence  of  her  grandmother,  13- 
19;  her  "voices,"  18-20;  early 
schooling,  21,  22;  her  love  for  her 
brother  Albert,  25,  26,  37;  her 
ardent  desire  for  learning,  27;  her 
precocity,  27,  28 ;  her  devotion,  28 ; 
early  religious  views  at  variance 
with  her  father's,  28-31 ;  early  ill- 
ness dispelled  by  prayer,  30 ;  makes 
a  religious  profession,  31 ;  becomes 
the  pupil  of  Prof.  Sanborn,  33 ;  in- 
tellectual comradeship  with  Rev. 
Enoch  Corser,  33,  34;  she  subdues 
a  lunatic,  35 ;  her  personal  appear- 
ance, 36;  grief  over  death  of  her 
brother  Albert,  37;  marriage  with 
George  Washington  Glover,  38,  39 
goes  to  live  in  Charleston,  S.  C,  39 
her  attitude  toward  slavery,  39,  40 
goes  to  Wilmington,  N.  C,  41 ;  her 
husband's  death,  41 ;  kindness 
shown  her  by  the  Masons,  41,  42; 
she  frees  her  slaves,  42 ;  returns  to 
her  father's  home,  42 ;  birth  of  a  son, 
42;  her  illness  and  recovery,  43; 
death  of  her  mother,  45 ;  contributes 
political  articles  to  the  Patriot,  46; 
teaches  in  the  N.  H.  Conference 
Seminary,  46 ;  unsuccessful  experi- 
ment with  an  infants'  school,  46 ; 
separated  from  her  son,  George, 
47,  48 ;  hves  with  her  sister  Abigail, 
49;  her  political  position,  52,  53; 
her  association  with  Spiritualism, 
55,  56 ;  her  iUness,  5Q,  51 ;  her  mar- 
riage with  Dr.  Daniel  Patterson,  57- 
59 ;  her  Ufa  in  Franklin,  N.  H.,  59, 
60;    moves  to  Groton,  N.  H.,  60; 


INDEX 


377 


her  extreme  invalidism,  62 ;  re- 
united to  her  son  George,  62;  lie 
is  again  taken  from  her,  63 ;  begin- 
ning of  her  idea  of  Divine  healing, 
64 ;  removes  to  Riminey,  68 ;  her 
observation  of  the  laws  of  hygiene, 
69,  70;  her  suffering,  70,  71 ;  seek- 
ing for  the  law  of  Divine  healing, 
72-81 ;  she  cures  the  bhnd  child, 
73,  74 ;  she  prepares  to  \nsit  Quimby, 
78;  sent  to  Hill,  79,  80;  visits 
Quimby,  81 ;  the  ext?nt  of  his  influ- 
ence on  her,  88 ;  released  from  pain 
by  him,  90 ;  her  faith  in  him,  91 ; 
imparts  to  him  his  idea  of  divine 
healing,  91-93 ;  endeavors  to  reduce 
this  idea  to  a  philosophic  basis,  93- 
95 ;  her  statement  concerning  Quim- 
by's  practise,  98;  her  idealization 
of  Quimby,  106,  107;  her  efforts  to 
liberate  her  husband,  108;  life  in 
Tilton,  108,  109 ;  fears  a  return  of 
her  illness,  109,  110;  returns  to 
Portland,  110;  her  efforts  to  believe 
in  "Quimbyism,"  111;  defends 
Quimby,  112;  \asits  Mrs.  Crosby, 
112;  her  efforts  to  free  Mrs.  Cros- 
by's mind  from  spiritualistic  beliefs, 
113-116;  joins  her  husband  in 
Lynn,  117;  friendships  formed, 
120;  social  intercourse,  121,  122; 
her  early  writings,  123,  124;  spirit- 
ual development,  124-127;  her 
"fall,"  127;  her  miraculous  recov- 
ery, 130,  131 ;  revelation  of  the 
principle  of  Christian  Science,  132; 
her  last  connection  with  Quimbyism, 
134,  135 ;  her  reply  to  Julius  Dress- 
er's pamphlet,  136;  deserted  by  her 
husband,  137-139;  refuses  to  give 
up  her  mission,  139 ;  her  lonehncss, 
141;  her  purpose  henceforth,  141, 
142;  her  association  with  the  Phil- 
lipses,  144-146;  her  first  demon- 
stration of  Mind-science,  146-148; 


other  demonstrations,  148-151 ;  her 
appearance  and  personality  de- 
scribed, 152-154;  instructs  Hiram 
Crafts  in  Christian  Science,  158; 
goes  to  Stoughton  and  boards  with 
the  Crafts,  160;  her  relations  with 
them,  161-105;  beginning  of  the 
preparation  to  state  Christian  Sci- 
ence, 166,  167;  preparing  a  new 
terminology,  168,  169;  her  visit  to 
her  sister,  172,  173;  heals  her  niece, 
173;  returns  to  Taunton,  173 ;  goes 
to  Amesbury,  175 ;  her  sojourn  at 
the  house  of  Mrs.  Webster,  176-178 ; 
boards  with  Miss  Bagley,  179-181 ; 
meets  Whittier,  180;  goes  to  live 
with  Mrs.  Wentworth,  182;  in- 
structs her  in  healing,  182,  183; 
returns  to  Miss  Bagley,  188;  com- 
pletes The  Science  of  Man,  189; 
her  period  of  preparation  completed, 
190-192;  she  determines  to  expound 
Christian  Science,  193;  returns  to 
Lynn,  195 ;  boards  with  Miss  Ma- 
goun,  196,  197;  the  first  classes  in 
Christian  Science,  198,  199;  her 
teaching  perverted  or  misunder- 
stood by  her  first  students,  200-207 ; 
she  determines  to  write  a  text-book, 
206,  207;  preparation  of  the  MS. 
of  Science  and  Health,  208-210; 
its  rejection  by  Adams  and  Co., 
210,  211;  buys  a  home,  212,  213; 
arrangements  for  printing  the 
first  edition,  214,  215;  her  claim 
to  authorship  disputed,  216-219; 
classes  formed  to  promulgate  Christ- 
ian Science,  222-225;  first  step 
toward  a  church,  226,  227;  influ- 
ence over  her  students,  228;  ac- 
quaintance with  Asa  Gilbert  Eddy, 
229,  230;  preparation  for  second 
edition  of  Science  and  Health,  231 ; 
marriage  with  Mr.  Eddy,  232;  re- 
stores harmony  among  her  students, 


378 


INDEX 


232,  233;    sued  by  George  Barry, 

233,  234;  difficulties  with  Spof- 
ford,  235-245 ;  correspondence  with 
George  Barry,  245,  246 ;  the  conspir- 
acy against  Mr.  Eddy,  247-258; 
preparation  for  greater  activity, 
259,  260 ;  she  carries  the  work  into 
Boston,  260,  261;  home  life,  262; 
visited  by  Mrs.  Choate,  263,  264; 
description  of  her  personal  appear- 
ance, 264 ;  her  students,  265 ;  church 
organized,  266 ;  her  regular  ser- 
mons, 267;  rebellion,  268-270;  her 
decisive  action,  271 ;  third  edition 
of  Science  and  Health,  273;  pre- 
pares to  leave  Lynn,  273;  visits 
Washington,  274 ;  protection  of  her 
works,  274-276 ;  makes  her  home 
in  Boston,  276 ;  death  of  Mr.  Eddy, 
277-281;  her  self-control,  282;  re- 
tires to  Vermont  for  a  rest,  283, 
284;  founding  of  the  Christian 
Science  Journal,  284,  285 ;  Calvin 
A.  Frye  chosen  as  her  steward,  285- 
288 ;  her  house  in  Boston,  288 ;  her 
reception,  289;  the  Massachusetts 
Metaphysical  College,  289-291 ;  her 
contribution  to  the  Christian  Science 
Journal,  292,  293;  prosecution  of 
infringement  of  her  copyrights,  296, 
297 ;  need  of  a  teacher  in  the  West, 
298,  299;  Mrs.  Eddy's  trip  to 
Chicago,  300 ;  her  work  there,  300- 
302 ;  formation  of  the  national  as- 
sociation, 302-304;  Boston's  inter- 
est in  Mrs.  Eddy,  304,  305 ;  reply 
to  Miss  Alcott's  article,  306;  her 
appreciation  of  George  Eliot,  306 ; 
influence  on  Miss  Lilian  Whiting, 
307,  308;  revision  of  Science  and 
Health,  309;  engages  services  of 
James  Henry  Wiggin,  309-313; 
seeks  rest  in  New  Hampshire,  314 ; 
new  publications,  315;  need  of 
seclusion,  315;  her  Commonwealth 


Avenue  home,  315,  316;  attends 
meeting  of  national  association  in 
Chicago,  316-320 ;  her  address,  318, 
319 ;  impromptu  reception,  321 ; 
her  dishke  of  publicity,  321 ;  re- 
solves to  withdraw  from  the  world, 
322;  rebellion  within  the  associa- 
tion, 323-326;  her  plans  to  safe- 
guard the  organization,  327 ;  closes 
the  college,  327;  dissolves  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Boston  church, 
327-329 ;  visit  from  her  son,  George 
Glover,  330-333;  her  disappoint- 
ment in  him,  332,  333;  adopts  E.  J. 
Foster-Eddy,  334;  makes  him  her 
publisher,  335 ;  her  disappointment 
in  him,  336 ;  not  satisfied  with  Barre 
or  Roslindale,  336;  retires  to  Con- 
cord, N.  H.,  336,  337;  "Pleasant 
View,"  338 ;  dissolution  of  the  bonds 
of  organization,  339;  organization 
of  the  Mother  Church,  340-342; 
elected  pastor  emeritus,  342 ;  her  life 
in  Concord,  344,  345 ;  her  habits, 
345,  346 ;  visits  the  Mother  Church, 
347;  receptions  in  Concord,  348, 
349;  publication  of  Miscellaneous 
Writings,  350;  teaches  one  more 
class,  351 ;  privacy  of  her  life,  353; 
the  new  church  in  Boston,  354,  355 ; 
invasion  of  her  privacy  by  news- 
paper men,  356-361 ;  the  suit  in 
equity,  361-367;  changes  her  resi- 
dence to  Chestnut  Hill,  368 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  4,  54,  156, 
157 

Evans,  Dr.  Warren  F.,  323 

Fabyans  N.  H.,  Mrs.  Eddy  at,  314 
Farlow,  Alfred,  interview  with,  240; 

head  of  Publication  Committee,  357 ; 

the  suit  in  equity,  363 
Fernald,    Josiah    E.,    Mrs.    Eddy's 

banker,  358;   trusteeship,  365 
Fletcher,  Richard,  21 


INDEX 


379 


Foley,  Margaret  J.,  266 

Foster-Eddy,  Dr.  Ebenezer  Johnson, 
290;  accompanies  Mrs.  Eddy  to 
Chicago,  317;  adopted  by  her,  334; 
his  character,  334,  335 ;  acts  as  Mrs. 
Eddy's  pubhsher,  335 ;  his  misman- 
agement of  a  mission,  335,  336 ;  his 
part  in  the  suit  in  equity,  363 

Fox  sisters,  the  55 

Franklin,  N.  H.,  59,  60 

Frye,  Calvin  A.,  becomes  Mrs.  Eddy's 
steward,  285-288;  copies  her  MS., 
314 ;  accompanies  her  to  Chicago, 
317;  his  faithful  services,  345,  357, 
358 ;  the  suit  in  equity,  363-365 

Lydia,  287,  288 

Fryeburg,  Me.,  6 

Fuller,  Margaret,  on  transcendental- 
ism, 157 

Gates,  Professor  Elmer,  on  the  causa- 
tive character  of  thinking,  278 

Gestafeld,  Mrs.  Ursula,  leads  rebellion 
in  Chicago,  302 

Glover,  George  W.,  son  of  Mrs.  Eddy, 
birth  of,  42;  nursed  by  Mahala 
Sanborn,  43 ;  early  training,  44 ; 
separated  from  his  mother,  47,  48; 
living  in  Groton,  N.  H.,  60;  re- 
united to  his  mother,  62;  again 
separated  from  her,  63;  his  later 
career,  63,  64 ;  writes  to  his  mother, 
71;  visits  his  mother,  330-333; 
encounters  Kennedy,  331 ;  his  part 
in  the  suit  in  equity,  361-367 

George  Washington,  meets  Mrs. 

Eddy,  37;  their  marriage,  38,  39; 
goes  to  Wilmington,  N.  C,  41 ;  his 
death,  41 

Mary  Baker,  daughter  of  George 

W.  Glover,  363 

Glover,  Mrs.  Mary  Baker,  see  Mary 
Baker  Eddy 

Godfrey,  Mrs.,  healed  by  Mrs.  Eddy, 
229 


Good  Templars,  the,  Mrs.  Eddy's  con- 
nection with,  122 

Groton,  N.  H.,  60,  61;  Mrs.  Eddy's 
life  in,  61-66 

Hale,  Edward  Everett,  310 

Hale,  John  P.,  nominated  for  Presi- 
dent, 51 

Hammond,  Edward  H.,  290 

Hanna,  Judge  Septimus  J.,  editorship 
of  the  Christian  Science  Journal, 
295 ;  first  reader  in  the  INIother 
Church,  347 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  4,  25;  his 
"Life  of  FrankUn  Pierce,"  51 

Herald,  the  Boston,  prints  interview 
supposed  to  concern  Mrs.  Eddy,  xiv ; 
prints  article  concerning  supposed 
murder  of  Spoiford,  247 ;  interview 
Avith  Mrs.  Eddy,  353,  354 

the  Newburyport,  243 

the  Washington,  quoted,  278 

Herbert,  John,  68 

Hering,  Hermann  S.,  359,  363 

Hicks,  Ehas,  leader  of  the  Quakers, 
157 

Hill,  Hon.  Isaac,  urges  Mrs.  Eddy  to 
write  poUtical  articles,  46 

Hillsborough,  N.  H.,  21,  32,  50 

Hopkins,  Mrs.  Emma,  editorship  of 
the  Christian  Science  Journal,  293, 
300 ;  her  apostasy,  294, 295 

Howard,  James  C,  269 

Human  Life,  quoted,  102,  224,  225, 
240 

Huntoon,  Mehitable,  19,  20 

Illinois  Christian  Science  Institute, 

the,  301 
International  Magazine  of  Christian 

Science,  the,  295 
"Ipswich  Witchcraft  Case,"  240-243 

J.uiAas,  Mary  Ann,  meeting  with  Mrs. 
Eddy,  110 


380 


INDEX 


Jeffersonian,  the  Bangor,  on  Quimby's 
doctrine  of  health  and  disease,  86, 
87 

Jelly,  Dr.  George  F.,  ahenist  in  the 
suit  in  equity,  366 

Johnson,  William  B.,  324,  341,  363 

Kennedy,  Richard,  quoted,  185,  186 ; 
instructed  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  188;  his 
desire  to  aid  Mrs.  Eddy  in  her  work, 
193,  194 ;  accompanies  her  to  Lynn, 
195;    makes  arrangements  for  an 

.  office,  195,  196;  his  unfitness  for 
the  work  undertaken,  197 ;  his  per- 
version of  her  teaching,  203-207; 
George  Barry  offers  to  drive  him 
out  of  Lyim,  245,  246 ;  admonished 
by  George  Glover,  321 

Kidder,  Daniel,  instructed  by  IVIrs. 
Eddy,  65 

John,  61 

Mark,  64 

Kimball,  Edward  A.,  363 

Knapp,  IraO.,  student  of  INIrs. Eddy's, 
274,  314,  338,  340,  341,  363 

Ladd,  Fred  N.,  358 

Lang,  Alfred,  340 

Leader,  the  Ohio,  account  of  inter- 
view with  Mrs.  Eddy  in,  307,  308 

Legion  of  Honor,  the,  Mrs.  Eddy's, 
connection  with,  122,  123 

Leonard,  Mrs.  Pamelia  J.,  345,  358 

Literature,  rise  of  American,  54 

Lovewell,  Hannah,  wife  of  Capt.  Jo- 
seph Baker,  5 

Captain  John,  5,  6 

Lynn,  Mass.,  110;  Mrs.  Eddy's  life 
in,  117-160 ;  her  return  to,  193-195 ; 
Mrs.  Eddy's  life  in,  196-273 

IVLicDoNALD,  Jessie,  part  in  conspir- 
acy against  Mr.  Eddy  and  Arens, 
254,  255 

Macdonald,  Asa  T.  N.,  227 


Magnetism,  animal,  54,  55 

maUcious  animal,  240,  276 

Magoun,   Miss  Susie,   becomes  ISIrs. 

Eddy's  landlord,  195,  196 
Mark,  St.,  his  gospel  compared  with 

Kenan's  "Life  of  Jesus,"  xii-xiii 
Mark  Twain,  attack  on  Science  and 

Health,  216-218 
Mason,  Rev.  Frank,  editorship  of  the 

Christian  Science  Journal,  295 ;  his 

desertion,  295 
Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College, 

founding  of,  272,  289-291;  closing 

of,  339 
May,  Judge.  248 
McClure's    Magazine,    statement    of 

Richard  Kennedy  quoted  in,  205; 

letters  of  Mrs.  Eddy  quoted  in,  235, 

236 
McLellan,  Archibald,  editorship  of  the 

Christian    Science     Journal,     296; 

trusteeship,  365 
^IcNeil,  Fanny,  wife  of  Judge  Potter, 

6 ;  her  visits  to  Bow,  24 

General  John,  6 

John,  6 

Marion    Moor,   wife    of    Capt. 

John  Baker,  5,  6 ;  her  care  of  Mrs. 

Eddy  in  childhood,  13-19 

Sir  John,  6 

Meehan,  M.,  editor  of  the  Concord 

Patriot,  358 
Mesmerism,  54,  55,  83-96 
Mind  Healing,  pubhcation  of,  315 
Miscellaneous  Writings,  quoted,  239; 

Mrs.     Eddy's     Chicago    address 

printed  in,  319 ;  pubhcation  of,  344, 

350 
Monroe,  Marcellus,  340 
Moor,  Marion,  wife  of  John  McNeil, 

6 
More,  Hannah,  17 
Morgan,  Miss  Martha,  Mrs.  Eddy's 

housekeeper,  336 
Morrison,  Amos,  43 


INDEX 


S81 


Morton,  Joseph,  269 

Moses,  George  H.,  358 

Mother  Church,  the,  preparation  for, 
339 ;  organization  of,  340-342 ;  vis- 
ited by  Mrs.  Eddy,  347;  the  new 
church,  354,  355 

National  Christian  Scientist  Associa- 
tion, its  formation  and  work,  302- 
304;  meeting  in  Chicago  in  1888, 
316-320;  adjournment  of,  339 

New  Hampshire,  her  part  in  the  his- 
tory and  independence  of  the  United 
States,  1-4 ;  conditions  of  hfe  in,  at 
the  time  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  birth,  9-11 

New  Thought  Movement,  323 

Newhall,  Ehzabeth,  227 ;  aids  in  pub- 
hcation  of  first  edition  of  Science 
and  Health,  229 

Newman,  Anna  B.,  269 

Nixon,  William  G.,  editorslu'p  of  the 
Christian  Science  Journal,  295 ;  his 
apostasy,  295 ;  trusteeship,  340 

No  and  Yes,  pubhcation  of,  315 

Noyes,  Dr,  Rufus  K.,  277 

Oliver,  George,  attracted  by  Mrs. 
Eddy's  conversation,  146 

Mrs.  George,  see  Susan  Phillips 

Orne,  Edward  A.,  266 
Osborne,  James  W.,  quoted,  250 

Parker,  Hon.  Hosea  W.,  366 

Theodore,  157 

Patriot,  Concord,  the,  Mrs.  Eddy  con- 
tributes to,  46 

Patterson,  Dr.  Daniel,  his  personahty 
and  character,  58,  59;  marriage 
with  IVIrs.  Eddy,  59 ;  moves  to  Gro- 
ton,  N.  H.,  60;  difficulties,  65;  re- 
moves to  Rumney,  68,  69 ;  captured 
by  Confederates  and  sent  to  Libbey 
Prison,  70 ;  interested  in  Phineas  P. 
Quimby,  74,  75 ;  hberated,  108 ;  set- 
tles in  Lynn,  Mass.,  109;  resumes 
practise  of  dentistry,  119;  his  shal- 


lowness and  vulgarity,  119, 121, 122; 

his  desertion  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  137-139 
Patterson,   Mary    Baker,    see    Mary 

Baker  Eddy 
Pembroke,  N.  H.,  5,  7 
People's  Idea  of  God,  publication  of, 

315 
I'hilbrick,   Chase,   detective  in  Spof- 

ford  conspiracy,  254 
Phillips,  Dorr,  first  demonstration  of 

Mind-science  made  on,  146-148 

Susan,  wife  of  George  Oliver, 

146,  195 

Thomas,  befriends  Mrs.  Eddy, 

144 

Pierce,  Franklin,  4,  6,  21 ;  in  a 
lawsuit  with  Mark  Baker,  24,  25; 
attracted  by  Albert  Baker,  25; 
nominated  for  President,  51;  his 
marriage  with  Jane  Appleton,  51 

Pierce,  Governor  Benjamin,  24;  en- 
tertains Mark  Baker,  25 

Pigwacket,  Me.,  see  Fryeburg 

Pike,  Sarah,  wife  of  Thomas  Baker,  5 

Pillsbury,  Luther,  35,  38 

Ellen,  healed  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  173; 

returns  with  her  to  Taunton,  173; 
her  later  antipathy  toward  Mrs. 
Eddy,  174 

Pilot,  the,  quoted,  305 

Pinkham,  HolUs  C,  detective  in  Spof- 
ford  conspiracy,  252-258 

Palmer  House,  Chicago,  Mrs.  Eddy's 
stay  in,  320,  321 

Plunkett,  Mary  H.,  her  influence  on 
Mrs.  Hopkins,  294,  295  ;  her  hypoc- 
risy, 322 

Poetry,  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  quoted,  171 

Portland,  Me.,  74 

Potter,  Judge,  6 

Poyen,  Charles,  54,  55 ;  visits  Belfast, 
Me.,  83 ;  influence  on  Quimby,  89 

Quimby,  George  A.,  81;  his  claim 
concerning  his  father's  manuscripts. 


382 


INDEX 


100-105;  author's  interview  with, 
102 ;  refuses  to  aid  Arens,  296 

Quimby,  Phineas  P.,  Dr.  Patterson  in- 
terested in,  74,  75;  writes  Mrs. 
Eddy,  80;  receives  visit  from  her, 
81 ;  his  early  Ufe,  82 ;  becomes 
interested  in  mesmerism,  83;  per- 
forms mesmeric  feats,  84;  becomes 
a  healer,  85,  86;  his  doctrine  of 
health  and  disease,  86,  87;  sum- 
mary of  his  work,  88-90;  releases 
Mrs.  Eddy  from  pain,  90 ;  receives 
from  her  his  idea  of  divine  heahng, 
91-93;  his  confusion  in  this  new 
idea,  94-96;  his  assumption  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  ideas,  97;  Mrs. 
Eddy's  statement  concerning  prac- 
tise of,  98;  death  of,  100;  claims 
concerning  "manuscripts"  of,  100- 
105;  his  doctrine  an  obstacle  to 
Mrs.  Eddy's  faith,   126,    127 

Quimbyism,  82-112,  126,  134-136, 
165,  182,  183,  201,  202,  207,  225, 
296,  297 

Rand,  Martha  Drew,  wife  of  George 

Baker,   45;    tells   of  Mrs.   Eddy's 

healing,  173 
Susan,  attendant  of  Mrs.  Eddy, 

79,  80 
Rawson,    Dorcas,    student    of    Mrs. 

Eddy's,   210,   227,   228,   240,   260, 

269 
Renan,  his  "Life  of  Jesus"  compared 

with  gospel  of  St.   Mark,  xii-xiii; 

quoted,  221 
Reporter,    the    Lynn,    Mrs.    Eddy's 

contributions  to,   124;    account  of 

her  "fall,"   127 
Retrospection    and   Introspection, 

quoted,  19,  20,  30,  48,  59,  63,  167- 

170,  178,  189-192,  223,  327 
Rice,   Miranda  R.,   student  of  Mrs. 

Eddy's,  210,  227.  228,  269 
Rochester,  N.  Y.,  55 


Roslindale,  Mass.,  Mrs,  Eddy  moves 
to,  326 

Roxbury,   Mass.,   5 

Ruddock,  Mary,  266 

Rudiments  and  Rules  of  Divine  Sci- 
ence, publication  of,  315 

Rumney,  N.  H.,  68,  69 

Rust,  Rev.  Richard  S.,  quoted,  con- 
cerning Mrs.  Eddy's  mother,  14; 
recommends  that  Mrs.  Eddy  open 
an  infants'  school,  46 

Saco,  Me.,  139 

Sanborn,  Professor  Dyer  H.,  his  part 
in  Mrs.  Eddy's  education,  33 ;  pro- 
fessor in  N.  H.  Conference  Semin- 
ary, 46 

Sanborn,  Mahala,  nurses  George 
Glover,  43;  marriage  with  Russell 
Cheney,  47 ;  separates  George  from 
his  mother,  47,  48 

Sanbornton  Bridge,  George  Baker 
enters  mills  at,  32,  revisited  by 
Mrs.  Eddy,  172 

Sargeant,  James  I.,  part  in  conspiracy 
against  Mr.  Eddy  and  Arens,  249, 
252-258 

Sargent,  Mrs.  Laura,  Mrs.  Eddy's 
companion,  338,  344,  345,  358 

Science  and  Health,  quoted,  72,  132, 
134,  143;  preparation  of  the  MS. 
of,  208-210 ;  its  rejection  by  a  pub- 
lisher, 210,  211;  arrangements  for 
printing  the  first  edition,  214,  215; 
the  subsequent  revision,  215,  216; 
attacks  on,  216-219;  preparation 
for  second  edition,  231 ;  difficulties 
and  failure  of  new  edition,  235-237 ; 
quoted,  243,  244;  third  edition, 
273 ;  quoted,  275 ;  revision  of,  309 ; 
proofs  read  by  James  Henry 
Wiggin,  309-312;  further  revi- 
sions, 344 

Science  of  Man,  The,  finished  by  Mrs. 
Eddy,  189 ;  advertised  in  the  Chris- 


INDEX 


S83 


tian  Science  Journal,  189 :  reprinted 

in  Science  and  Health,  190 

Shannon,  Miss  Kate,  345 

Shiloh,  battle  of,  George  Glover 
wounded  at,   63 

Sibley,  Miss  Alice,  compamon  to  Mrs. 
Eddy,  284,  285,  290 

Slavery,  Mrs.  Eddy's  attitude  toward, 
39,  40 ;  she  frees  her  slaves,  42 

Smith,  Hanover  P.,  290 

Smith,  Governor  Hoke,  letter  of,  7,  8 

Smith,  Myra,  Mrs.  Eddy's  bUnd  ser- 
vant, 61,  62,  65,  69 

SpirituaUsm,  birth  of,  54 ;  great  inter- 
est taken  in,  55,  56 

Spofford,  Daniel  H.,  student  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's,  223-227 ;  begins  practise  of 
healing,  230,  231 ;  his  mismanage- 
ment of  the  first  edition  of 
Science  and  Health,  235-237;  his 
defection,  238-240;  sued  by  Lu- 
cretia  Brown  for  mesmerism,  241, 
242 ;  report  of  his  murder,  247 ; 
Arens  and  Eddy  arrested  as  his 
murderers,  247-249;  facts  of  the 
conspiracy,  252-258 

Stanley,  Charles  S.,  his  unfitness  as  a 
student  of  Christian  Science,  200, 
203,  204 

Stark,  General,  2 

Stevens,  Oliver,  District  Attorney,  248, 
249 

Stewart,  Rev.  Samuel  B.,  197;  unites 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Eddy  in  marriage, 
232 

Stowe,  Harriet  Beecher,  52 

Strang,  Lewis  C,  secretary  to  Mrs. 
Eddy,  357,  358;  the  suit  in  equity, 
363 

Straw,  Jane  I.,  269 

Streeter,  General  Frank  S.,  Mrs. 
Eddy's  lawyer,  358 ;  trusteeship,  365 

Stuart,  Elizabeth  G.,  269 

Swampscott,  Mass.,  Mrs.  Eddy's  news- 
letters from,  124 


Taunton,  Mass.,  163,  164 
Thompson,  Dr.  E.  J.,  talks  with  Mrs. 

Eddy  about  religion,  161 
Charles   P.,    attorney   for   Mrs. 

Eddy,  234 
Tilton,  Abigail,  see  Abigail  Baker 
Alexander,   marries  Abigail 

Baker,  32 ;   prosperity  of,  49,  50 
Tomlinson,    Irving    C,  the    suit    in 

equity,  363 ;  trusteeship,  365 
Transcendentalism,  account  of  move- 
ment, 155-158 
Transcript,  the  Lynn,  quotes  Wallace 

W.  Wright,  201,  202 
Traveler,  the  Boston,  quoted,  320 
Tuttle,  George,  becomes  one  of  Mrs. 

Eddy's  students,  199 ;  his  unfitness, 

200,  203,  204 

Unitarianism,  155,  157 
Unity  of  Good,  first  appearance,  315 
Universalism,  155,  157 
University  Press,  The,  prints  Science 
and  Health,  310,  312 

Wallace,  Sir  William,  6 

War,  the  Civil,  causes  leading  up  to, 
50,  51 

War,  French  and  Indian,  New  Hamp- 
shire's part  in,  2 

War  of  1812,  6 

War  of  Independence,  New  Hamp- 
shire's part  in,  2-4 

Webster,  Daniel,  4,  35,  50,  51 

Mrs.     Nathaniel,     Mrs.     Eddy 

boards  with,  176 

Weller,  Mrs.  Janette  E.,  travels  with 
Mrs.  Eddy,  314 

Wentworth,  Charles,  182,  184 

Horace,  182,  183;  his  unfounded 

allegations  against  Mrs.  Eddy, 
186-188 

Lucy,  182 ;  her  devotion  to  Mrs. 

Eddy,  184,  185 

Mrs.  Sally,  invites  Mrs.  Eddy  to 


384 


INDEX 


live  with  her,  182 ;  instructed  by  her 
in  healing,  182,  183 

Whiting,  Mrs.  Abbie,  student  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's,  284,  290 

Lihan,  interview  with  Mrs.  Eddy, 

307,  308 

Whittier,  John  Greenleaf,  175;  meet- 
ing with  Mrs.  Eddy,  180 

Wiggin,  Rev.  James  Henry,  indexes 
and  reads  proof  of  15th  edition  of 


Science  and  Health,  309-312;  de- 
fense of  Christian  Science,  311,  312 

WUson,  H.  ComeU,  357 

John,  310 

Winslow,  Charles,  150 

Mrs.     Charles,    rejects    heahng 

by  Mrs.  Eddy,  150,  151;  visited 
by  Mrs.  Eddy,  175 

Wright,  Wallace  W . ,  his  connection  with 
Mrs.  Eddy's  teaching,  201-203,  207 


The  University  Press,  Cambridge,  U.  S.  A. 


i 


^^^ 


